Blacktail Deer Plateau [j] the night's watch

Peregrine felt resigned to his fate and, accordingly, behaved much like an apathetic automaton. He patrolled, hunted, cached and otherwise played the part of a contributing pack wolf. He even socialized, though he found it difficult and draining to be housed among strangers when, for so long, he had been surrounded by familiar faces. Despite the wonderful home offered to him, however, he did not enjoy life at the plateau. He did not really live there, he merely survived there.

When a familiar scent hit his nose during an idle patrol, it nonetheless elicited a reaction as if a rock had struck Peregrine upside the head. He stopped, his swarthy head rearing and his nostrils flaring. Incredulity crept over his face and he snorted, shaking his head as if to divest the scent from his olfactory tissues. When it persisted, his eyes shifted and he stared questioningly into the woods, his brow knitting. He hardly dared believe it, yet all the same, Peregrine began to lope toward the origin of the smell.

There was no mistaking him when Peregrine reached the tree line and gazed over the plateau's edge, his blue-green eyes finding his brother's familiar silhouette down below. Unaware that he was holding his breath, the Sigma plunged down the towpath that led to the borders and approached Crete, stopping just short of his brother and staring at him in disbelief. After a beat, he stretched out his neck and sniffed noses with his litter mate and, with that, his breath finally burst out of him in a ragged gasp.

"You? He exiled you?" he practically shouted, his eyes rolling wildly as he growled deeply. "God, he really is a fuckstick, isn't he, if he's threatened by the resident mute." Sharply, Peregrine's eyes met Crete's and his lip curled. "Sorry, Crete." Although he wasn't as close to Crete as he was to Osprey and he sometimes found the mute to be an annoyance, Peregrine naturally loved his brother. "It's just absolutely fucking ludicrous."

Peregrine's mouth fell into a grim line and he appeared thoughtful for several moments, his eyes absently regarding his litter mate. He knew that Crete would need a home and not just anyplace would do; he needed to live somewhere where he could be understood. Although Peregrine somewhat resented finding himself subjected to this role, he wasn't about to turn away his litter mate. They needed one another. Peregrine would have a piece of Flightless Falcons here with him.

"Stay here," he implored, though it wasn't so much a question as a command. Then his ears pricked and he inquired rather fiercely, "How's Osprey?" He assumed his sister was still there, since Tyrannus would not feel nearly as threatened by his female kin, despite March Owl's powerful legacy.