Sequoia Coast give me no reprieve

Where he thought that the parting of himself from the Spine had come easily, gently, it seemed that maybe it hadn't. He huffed, though there was little emotion connected to it. It didn't need it for the traces of perhaps I should have known writ themselves easily in the way his head dropped for a moment. He gave it a shake, leveling his gaze out again. He didn't expect Cara to hold him in high regard, if only for the fact that she hadn't for so long. Perhaps that had been in part why he felt it necessary to move on. It had been an inkling feeling that had been climbing up after him from the moment Ptarmigan had set foot on the Spine's earthy terrain.

"It was time to move on." He avoided the question, then thought better of it. "It was something I had been considering for a long time. That pack is not for me to lead. I guess I don't do the inheriting thing right," and following that, he offered her a quirky smile. His ascension to leading the Spine had been far from an inheritance. He had put himself there from a culmination of many things, most of all aggravation from the one who he had left it to. But he refrained from speaking poorly of Cara, certain that he didn't need to. She had undoubtedly left a sour impression to Caiaphas already.

"How long ago did you visit?"