Redhawk Caldera But you've got to come back a star

@Fox? :)

Wildfire passed from no man's land into her parents' territory, sought some shade and sat down after her long trip. Her body was reasonably tired from the travel, yet it was her mind that felt exhausted. She kept replaying Saena's long rant in her head. She badly wanted to ask her parents about it, although she knew that meant admitting to sneaking away. Would Peregrine and Fox be angry with her? Would they be particularly pissed that she had talked to Saena? Maybe she should keep her lips sealed. She didn't want to get grounded.

She slumped forward with a sigh, her chin coming to rest on her crossed forelegs. Maybe she should sleep on it. Wildfire didn't think she could handle displeasing her parents, not after the emotionally charged week they'd had. Perhaps she should speak to Nightjar or Raven first, see what they thought. These thoughts and a thousand others fluttered in her head like bats as Wildfire's eyes drifted shut and she began to snore.

Omg my week just keeps getting worse help please save me I'm drowninggggg *gurgles*

Fox continued to stick close to the rendezvous site. Peregrine's sight had not improved, and she hardly expected it to at this point. In fact, she had assumed at first that his loss of sight had been due to the blood. But it was clear that blood no longer stuck to the outer surface of his eye, and so his sight was gone. It didn't make much sense, considering his eye was still there, but she knew nothing about how anything worked anatomically. It was frustrating, of course, but Fox tried her best not to crowd him (as much as she wanted to).

Starling had been all but forgotten, though the yellow-eyed lover did occasionally flicker into her thoughts. Every time, Fox pushed her out, knowing that her family had to come first. Presently, Fox was heading out to check and secure the borders when she came upon a slumbering mini-me. For a moment, she thought to let her daughter doze off, but she knew that having company would be better. "Hey Dhole? You want to come on border patrol?" Fox was a poet, and she didn't even know it! She leaned in, licking Wifi's face to wake her up.

*tosses you a lifesaver*

Her mother's voice, coupled with a hot, wet tongue to her face, effectively roused Wildfire. She stretched and blinked a few times, then startled and jumped upright. Had she been caught? Was her mother here to chew her out for going against her wishes? But she replayed Fox's words back in her head and realized she wasn't in trouble... at least not yet, anyhow.

"Oh," she said, voice still thick with sleep, "sure." She began to pad after the Alpha female, a massive yawn forcing her jaws apart. Once it passed, she felt more awake. Everything came back to her: the unexpected encounter with Saena, the yearling's long polemic, her doubts and misgivings about the whole story. Wildfire's ears pinned backward as she trundled along in Fox's wake.

Well, if she wanted to be a grownup, she would have to learn to face the consequences of her actions. Maybe she could even convince Fox that she was old enough to go out alone, though she was doubtful about that. Even though Saena hadn't hurt her and even explained that she had zero interest in doing so, Wildfire couldn't imagine her parents loosing the reigns very much.

"Mom," she spoke up a few minutes into their patrol, "I have to tell you something. You might get mad." Wildfire slowed, then stopped in her tracks, waiting for Fox to turn and face her. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest and her breath came in nervous pants.

Fox didn't catch onto the hesitation, attributing it to Wifi's sleepiness. She did wake, though, and Fox began to start toward the border. Dhole followed, albeit sluggishly, behind. Fox didn't intend to make this trip to the border a long one, but she would make a quick pass of the northern border. They weren't very far along when Dhole spoke up. She stated that she had something to say, which was nothing out of the ordinary. But it was the last bit that caused Fox to stop a few feet ahead of her daughter, brow furrowing as she turned to face Wifi.

"Well," Fox said plainly, "spill the beans." Even if it made her angry, Fox wanted to know. And now that Wifi had admitted to doing something (that sounded like it was at least somewhat bad), she already had her feet wet. All that was left was to dive in and either sink or swim.

She swallowed, bowing her head, keeping her eyes averted. "Okay. Please don't hate me," she whispered. Of course, Wildfire knew her mother would never hate her (no matter how terrible Saena made her out to be). But she was such an obedient child usually that she wasn't used to getting into trouble. Her heart continued to pound and she sucked in a shaky breath, trying to steady herself.

Spill she did. "I left the caldera. I know you and dad don't want us to go outside the territory but I needed to get away for a little bit. I'm sorry I disobeyed you." She'd spent one breath, so Wildfire drew in another and out came another splash of word vomit. "I went out to this huge, pretty lake. I ran into a wolf there. She didn't attack me or anything but she... she said some things." Here, her voice faltered a little bit. She paused, then blurted out the key piece of information. "It was Saena Redtail."

There was little chance that Fox would (or even could) hate Dhole, and she gave her a slight shake of her head. The fact that Wildfire had left the caldera wasn't all that surprising. She and her siblings were reaching an age where Fox and Peregrine could no longer watch them every second. They would need the freedom to grow and stretch their legs. And while Fox had hoped that Wifi would seek out an adult to go with her, she could understand the girl's impatience if nobody was up for an outriding trip.

But it was the name that caused the gears in Fox's brain to really crank hard. Apparently, that little wench had "said some things." The Alpha's lip curled at the mere mention of the name, but she smoothed it out, using every ounce of her willpower to keep calm. "And what ‘things’ did she say?" Fox asked.

She didn't know what to expect, exactly, because this was all new territory to her. Wildfire braced herself, in case her mother decided to shout at her or, worse, force her to submit. Fox did neither of these things and when she calmly posed a question to her daughter, Wildfire felt a bit sheepish. No, she felt more than sheepish. Had Saena's poison already worked its way through her? That thought alone made the child want to retch.

"I didn't recognize her but she knew who I was. She said she visited us once, when we were really little, and that when she came back to teach me about Naturalism, you attacked her. I tried to tell her we don't let any outsiders visit but... she said she wasn't an outsider. Then she really started ranting. She said you and dad abandoned them without saying goodbye. She said Junior tried to kill herself because of it. She said it's dad's fault Junior attacked me and that you guys attacked a bunch of them. She told me to ask, um, Dante and Blue Willow about you guys."

There, that was most if not all of it. She hadn't embellished anything either, as far as she knew. She just repeated what she'd been told, then lapsed into silence. While she waited for Fox to react, she hunkered down, pressing her belly against the grass. Then she remembered one last thing Saena had said to her. She'd said it twice, actually. Wildfire had been so overloaded by all the information that she hadn't reacted to much, yet this particular urging had prompted an almost visceral reaction.

"She told me not to grow up to be like you and dad," she finished, finally raising her eyes a little. Although she had been through some hard times in young life already, Wildfire had never really looked or acted the part. She rolled with the punches, more or less. But her amber eyes looked different now, as if she really had been contaminated by Saena's words.

And now I can use this for chronicler!

It seemed that children—or perhaps just family in general—had taught Fox to listen… at least to them. Fox listened, trying to take in each point and break it down. It seemed Saena really had it out for both Fox and Peregrine. And for all the wrong reasons. "We did not abandon anyone. Dud and I went looking for a new home to raise our family—you. We invited Saena and her sister, Ty, along, but they chose not to follow. Junior—hell, that girl left the pack when she was about your age. If anything, she abandoned Dud." Maybe Peregrine just happened to produce very independent children. Or his whole family did, taking Bones into account as well.

"When we first got here, to the caldera, I fell and injured myself pretty seriously. I couldn’t move very much, which is why I wasn’t there when Dud went back to the plateau to tell them where we'd settled, to invite them along." Fox had never had a particularly sharp memory, but she liked to think that she had remembered at least the events that had affected her personally. "The whole of Blacktail Deer Plateau considers us traitors because we wanted our own lives, away from them. Ask Dante and Blue Willow all you want. But you should also know that Blue Willow wanted to have bastard children. She even went through with it, after we left. We saw very differently on that issue, and Blue Willow fought me on everything from the moment Dud took me in. Is that not abandoning your children before they are even born?" It certainly wasn't giving them the best life they could possibly have. And that was the way Fox had been taught to raise children: with everything possible in their favor.

"You’ll grow up to be whoever you are," Fox added, since that seemed to be a sticking point for Wildfire. "If you see Saena again, tell her to stop spreading lies." It was still possible that Wifi would take Saena's side (plenty others had believed her bullshit), but Fox wanted to believe she had a greater influence on her daughter.

Fox quickly struck down much of Saena's story. Naturally, Wildfire was inclined to believe her mother over an estranged elder sister with a bone to pick. But that didn't settle the matter completely. Why would Saena twist the details like that? Wildfire and even Fox could only make guesses. Perhaps she had just taken everything the wrong way, taken things personally when they weren't meant to be. Maybe Junior's death and being chased away from the caldera made her so angry she was now telling outright lies about Peregrine and Fox out of anger and indignation. Or maybe she truly felt things had happened as she'd described them. Wildfire could ask her parents and even Saena for every last detail and it would remain impossible to ever know the objective truth without having been there.

So she had learned a difficult but valuable lesson: two different people could tell entirely different stories about the same person or situation. She would just have to use her best judgment to decide what to believe. That's what she had been doing so far in life. Her parents taught her things but she didn't necessarily believe in every last thing they did. For instance, she knew that neither of them saw a lot of value in Outriders, yet she aspired to travel far and wide. She knew for a fact not all wolves from the north treated her like an enemy, either. Hell, even Saena hadn't harmed a hair on her head, even if she had bled wrath like poison.

Wildfire didn't necessarily understand Fox's issue with bastards, either, though she knew better than to say anything about it just now. Anyway, her mother's remark about Saena left her so surprised she was momentarily speechless, though after a moment she did find her voice to ask, "You're not going to ground me? You don't care if I see her again?" Not that Wildfire necessarily wanted to see Saena again. The entire encounter had been less than pleasant. But there was part of her that was curious about her half-sister and why she insisted on believing the worst of Peregrine and Fox. The child was biased, though she still wanted to understand both sides of the story.

Wildfire didn't comment on the stories of old at all. In fact, she seemed only concerned with whether or not she'd be allowed to go out again and see Saena. Fox paused, considering the options. Even if she grounded Dhole, she doubted that her daughter would actually follow through with staying at Redhawk Caldera. In a sense, she'd already been grounded... she'd just refused to actually stay at home where she was supposed to be. The kids were all old enough to know when to fight or flee (or so thought Fox). "I'll talk to Dud about it," Fox replied. She knew Peregrine would be hesitant.

"Once you leave Redhawk Caldera, none of us can protect you. Even I don't go looking for trouble without somebody to back me up. About Saena... well, you know what her sister did. I believe she's just as capable as Junior ever was." Fox didn't have a reason to believe otherwise. Junior had waltzed right into their home because she'd been trusted. It was unfortunate that she'd ripped the trust right out of Saena's paws as well (along with the rest of the world), but that was the way things were. Fox would never trust her, nor anybody who had spoken so venomously about the Redhawks.

The fact that Fox intended to discuss the topic with Wildfire's father gave the girl hope. She would be an adult in just a few months, so maybe they were ready to let her go off on her own. Her mother did remind her that the pack couldn't protect her when she left, then warned her that Saena might prove as unpredictable as Junior. The gingery pup bobbed her head to acknowledge these statements.

"I know it's not as safe as staying here. But I want to be an Outrider so bad," Wildfire confessed to her mother. "And I'm a Warrior too. I know how to take care of myself." Obviously, she couldn't avoid all danger out there and she would come home with scrapes and bruises at some point. "Magpie and I escaped a cougar, mom. I'm not afraid of Saena," she concluded, biting her lip and glancing up at the Alpha female with a hopeful smile.

Maybe if Ray or Dean come around, they'll be family that doesn't hate Peregrine!

"You're an apprentice warrior," Fox reminded Wildfire, her tone stern but not overwhelmingly so. Although Fox considered children more or less "grown up" by the time they looked like adults, she knew that they were still mentally children. They still made rash decisions and would probably continue to do so into adulthood. "And what if Magpie hadn't been there? You know I'd prefer it if you took somebody with you, even if it was your brother or sister." Two always had a better chance that one. And although two adolescents wasn't the best thing in the world, it was still better than Dhole being out there by herself.

"You don't have to be afraid of Saena, but you should be wary of her. And all wolves that aren't a part of our home." She had a good feeling that Dhole had taken that to heart. Fox had been sure to show her the way when they had run into that Blacktail Deer Plateau wolf at the lake months ago. "Actually..." Fox trailed off, suddenly remembering what Saena had done to Sebastian. "Saena attacked Sebastian. She and her wolves nearly killed him. I don't know why she didn't do the same to you." Maybe Perry's daughter was playing some kind of mind game. Fox was less than fond of those.

I realized today that Wifi's hearing all this bad stuff about her parents right at the same time Perry's being a moody dick. Oops.

Fox reminded her of her place, then repeated her point about the buddy system. Wildfire would make an effort to take someone along on most of her jaunts, though sometimes she just wanted to go off on her own, entirely unaccompanied. She knew better than to mention this, of course. If she did go out alone, she would be very careful. Most of her encounters outside the caldera had been positive, though she wouldn't let her guard down for anything.

The mention of Sebastian's injuries caused the pup's brows to lift. "Did he trespass?" she asked in confusion. Fox had attacked Saena for coming too close, so had she done the same to the gray male? Wildfire couldn't imagine someone like Sebastian doing something so foolhardy but it didn't make sense otherwise, especially considering Saena hadn't seemed really seemed aggressive so much as angry—very, very angry.

"No," Fox replied. The healer would have mentioned it if he had, right? He may have been close to her home, sure, but nowhere near enough to cause him to be a threat. Saena had come right to their borders that day when Fox had gone for her throat. In fact, if they happened to meet on neutral ground, Fox wasn't even sure she would be out to kill. Sure, she didn't think that she and Saena would get along (in any sense of the word), but the savage anger that had pulsed through her veins back then had settled after the onslaught of "visitors" had ceased their pestering.

"If he had been, I wouldn't have cared what happened to him." A trespassing wolf was a stupid wolf, even Fox knew that. Let's just forget that Fox had repeatedly trespassed on other wolves' properties when she'd first moved to the Teekon Wilds. It wasn't her brightest moment... but she'd been a thrill-seeker back then and lacked responsibilities. Time had sobered her quite a bit, as did having Peregrine and the children to think about.

Her mother answered quickly and succinctly. Why, then, had Saena mauled Sebastian... and then left her entirely alone (aside from murdering her ears a bit)? Wildfire thought on it a moment and wondered if it had been anger over Junior's death and her own beating at the borders, resulting in a thirst for revenge at the time. Even though the black yearling had done something very stupid, resulting in her own death, the youth could see why her loved ones would still mourn her loss. Saena had even mentioned that she knew her sister's actions were horrible but that she must have felt even worse to commit them. And then getting her ass handed to her must have left her feeling pretty disgruntled. (Random side thought: had her mother been the one to tear off Saena's tail?)

Wildfire's lips pursed. There was so much more to the story, with lots of high emotions on either side. For now, the child decided to let the subject rest. There would be plenty of time to consider it more later. Despite her earlier nap, she was exhausted all over again. She was famished too. But there was a border patrol to finish. Maybe they could grab something to eat afterward and then go home. In the meantime, she lapsed into silence, still trailing after her mother around the perimeter.

Dhole fell silent, and so Fox let the conversation rest, returning to the task at hand. All the kids—despite how much Fox might want to deny it—were old enough to start making their own decisions. She continued along the borders, stopping every so often to rub herself against a tree, take a piss, or scratch at the ground. It was the way of the wolf, this. Even with all the history that Fox had behind her, she had never let go of her roots. Deep down, she was an instinctual creature, hell-bent on giving her children the tools for success. If that meant that she had to relive some of her "ugly" past, so be it. She was far more concerned with their well-being than some childish rumors spreading outside of Redhawk Caldera.

The two continued on the patrol in easy silence. When they finished, Fox would return to the rendezvous site. There, she would watch over Peregrine, making sure that he was well-fed and as rested as possible. Even if he had not made a full recovery, he could still rest and eat.