Bearclaw Valley ah, how McDonald's of you

If Piper was anything, she was determined. She had set it in her mind that she would help locate her missing brother, or she would die trying. Though her mother was hurting, the Redleaf girl had shouldered the weight of being productive enough to trail the borders and keep an eye out for nasty creeps on the other side. Something in her said that Lucas wouldn’t have just wandered away; he had to have been taken.

No matter what had pulled her beautiful brother from their family, there wasn’t a day that passed where she didn’t feel the gaping hole that he had left behind. If it weren’t for the hope that had been instilled in her, Piper would have found the deepest darkest hole and crawled into a state of depression. As it was, she was getting something of a two-for-one deal: depression and exhausting trips in search of her sibling.

Stretching her limbs, the Redleaf girl started toward the borders with a serious countenance.

MACCAS?!! DADDYS HERE!!

it had only been a few days since indra's return, yet she remained listless. her sore limbs had recovered but her spirits remained low; lucas was yet to be found and by now it was appearing as if he were gone forever.

it was a hard truth indra didn't want to face, but it was worse for his siblings -- indra could not imagine having lost laurel at their age. the thought caused her throat to harden and stomach to churn.

it was not overly difficult to find piper, though when indra came across the girl her countenance fell; she looked dispirited, sorrowed by her recent loss. there was no use trying to ignore it, and indra did not hide her own disquiet as she approached the girl. "he'll come back." she said by greeting, sliding to the ground in a tired slump. "i miss him too."

There was a voice that pulled the Redleaf girl from her thought. She whirled her head around and latched her eyes on Indra with a breath of relief that passed through her lips. If she hadn’t been so lost in her thoughts, she would have recognized the voice instantly. Instead, her mind was pulled away by the idea that she might never find Lucas - the chance that he was gone for good. Try as she might, Piper felt as though her sweet brother had left her in the reeds. All she could do was struggle to keep herself from sinking into the creek.

“But what if he doesn’t?”

The words left her without her control. She felt an instant regret for having spoken them. Since his disappearance, the russet firebrand had done everything she could to keep a positive outlook. Piper had donned the armor of determination, and she had done well not to let her doubts cloud her mind. As more time passed, it had grown far more difficult.

indra's sudden approach seemed to have taken piper by surprise. a flash of guilt fled indra's gaze, for she had not meant to startle piper. she gave an apologetic smile as the girl settled, and looked on with a quiet bemusement at the rebuke that was quick to follow on the heel's of indra's assertation.

in truth indra didn't mind; the two shared more than an affinity for the same fur color, and that was exactly the type of question indra would have asked, too.

"then he doesn't come back, and life moves on." indra was not a liar, and would not subject piper to untruths. "but we know that is not like him to just leave." or, that is what indra believed -- the boy had been a sweet, faithful boy and as the days grew shorter and more time lapsed from the day he had disappeared, the more indra was convinced lucas had not had much of a hand in his own disappearance.

she inspected her travel-blunted claws for a minute; how cracked and worn the flat of her feet appeared. she wondered if the rest of her looked that way, too. "that's just the way of the world, pipes. people come, people go. you just got to keep your chin up, and don't give up hope."

Piper didn't like the answer that was provided for her. In fact, it made her sting with a strange emotion – one she could not have named on her own. There was a bubbling mixture of rage and frustration that was clawing away at her insides, attempting to force its way out. Instead of allowing it to take control, the Redleaf girl only managed a snort of disdain and turned her attention away from Indra.

“Then someone had to have taken him,” Piper remarked quietly, but the stare that was fixed on her aunt was unrelenting.

If it wasn't like Lucas to just leave and never come back, there had to be another reason for his disappearance. Piper wasn't certain which was better; that her brother might have simply vanished on his own accord, or that someone could be cruel enough to take him. Though Indra attempted to normalize the incident, Piper couldn't swallow the pill she was being fed. Her lip curled with contempt before she shook her skull.

“I don't accept that. That's not the way my world is.”

indra sympathized with piper; she could sense that simmering rage, and how it seemed to bubble out of sight, just barely lidded. someday, that dam would break. someday, piper too would succumb to the ribald anger that burned in every redleaf.

she knew it had been hard on them to lose lucas. in some ways he had been the bright cant of sunlight in an otherwise dreary world. he was the soft summer yellow on a drab scene - his smile could evince play from any, even the adults. now not only were they left with the grief of his passing, but the close of that sunny door; bearclaw once more sunk into grey obscura.

"well. you'll find the world churns on, regardless of what you want out of it. the sooner you realize that, the better." she realized too late she was being slightly condescending -- but indra knew the cold reality piper didn't, and it had hardened her heart and dimmed her outlook. "he's gone. we can keep looking for him, and keep the faith, but there isn't much we can do besides that. what would you do? what is your world like?"

“You don't seem to be looking very hard right now,” Piper huffed angrily.

The fur along her neck and shoulders rose upward out of instinct. Her head was low and her eyes were trained on her aunt with a furious fire burning in them. She didn't care for what was proper, and she didn't need a reality lesson from Mrs. Apathy. Piper had lost her brother, and no one really seemed to care about making a difference in that awful happenstance. Most of them seemed to just expect her to move on and accept fate for what it was.

Well, she wasn't that kind of person.

“What if he's somewhere and he's waiting for us to find him? What if someone took him and he's been... hurt... and he's just waiting for one of us to come and save him? How do you think he's going to feel when no one ever comes?” the Redleaf girl was almost hysterical, but it was caged by the rage she felt boiling in her blood. Logic and rationality played very little part when she was so emotionally invested. More than anything, Piper wanted her brother to come home so she could show him all the pretty stones she'd collected from the river just for him.

“I would want you to look for me if I went missing...”

And she wouldn't want them to stop until she had been found. She expected the same for Lucas.

indra felt heat rise to her cheeks as piper contested her words, lobbying her with words that indra could only barely absorb without righteous disbelief. a scoff rudely split from her throat, while the tattered corners of her ears pulled back in scorn. reflexively her muscles tensed, a coiling stiffness around them that seemed to suggest well the fury that just barely was kept lidded. in that moment she wanted to strike down her insolent niece, and lash her for the cruelty of her tongue.

indra had been looking; she had been gone for days at a time while xan did nothing. she had cracked paws, sore limbs -- her sleek summer condition had faded to a wearied and thrifty pelt, and her good weight had been lost until she looked wilted as a twisted grey tree. her stomach churned to be accused so wrongly, and an old injustice emblazoned in her gaze.

she did not trust herself to react fairly; she would hurt piper if she could, but the hurt and anger would be misplaced -- and then how could she live with herself? piper was only reacting as a child could - it was not her fault she could not see the forest for the trees, and would not have indra said the same thing, in her shoes?

with a snarl indra turned on her heels; she could not contain her wrathf for long before it would seek to strike, and knowing the venom her anger was capable of, indra quickly pressed into a blind run.

Piper watched as her aunt's features seemed to transform. Deep in her gut, the Redleaf girl knew that she had crossed a line, but she was far too stubborn to back down after having vocalized her thoughts. Though she had never been hurt by Indra, there was a part of her that feared she would soon feel the lashing of her aunt's fangs against her skin.

It didn't happen.

The russet woman turned away from the child and disappeared before Piper had another chance to say anything. Her eyes followed with confusion, not understanding that her aunt had left in order to prevent herself from hurting the young Redleaf. Instead of feeling vindicated, the fiery girl felt as though she had caused more harm than she had intended.

After Indra faded from sight, Piper turned with a sigh and slowly moved away in the opposite direction. Her eyes were trained on the ground beneath her and her heart ceased its wild hammering.