Blacktail Deer Plateau Harpy's fury

I have some random inspiration. Would like short posts and definitely someone Saena can rage at!

She'd kept a low profile since Dante's announcement that they were cutting ties with Redhawk Caldera. She'd been nothing but appreciative of the Alpha male's decision to respect the wishes of his pack more than those of a group of deserters. She'd been overjoyed to know Junior had sent Finley packing. She had not been overjoyed when Junior was shamed for sending an outsider out, but her knowledge on the specifics was too limited to act on that.

Now, however, there was absolutely no doubt that Junior was gone. There was no one to blame for this but the "leaders" whose loyalty, it seemed, still lay with Peregrine and his misfits. They had shamed Junior enough that she had left them. And so Saena was furious, resentful of those who thought they were good enough to lead this pack while putting their own interests first and not accomodating the perfectly reasonable actions of their young, troubled subordinates.

And so she sat rigidly in a small clearing, surrounded by dirty snow that she had churned up in a fury. She'd sent a short and clipped howl into the sky, summoning one of these so-called fair leaders to answer for the loss of Junior, who Saena knew had been devoted to them and their pack over their deserter friends and must have been mistreated for it.

*throws Dante in*
I'm at work so they will be short lol

Dante had noticed Junior's absence with a heavy heart. At first he had hoped she was still merely angry and avoiding them, but as time went on it was unmistakably clear she had once again fled the Plateau.

So when Saena's angry call sounded over the land, Dante knew it could really only be about one thing. Pushing down the thought that he'd about had his fill with their entire family, he went to answer with some trepidation. It was an uncharitable feeling, he knew, and he missed Junior dearly, but the stress of the drama surrounding their situation was not something he was internalizing well. Put that on top of hunger that gnawed at him and he wasn't in such a charitable mood.

Stopping before Saena, he remained silent, waiting for the inevitable.

Dante was prompt, a fact she'd always liked about the Alpha male. It did little to alleviate her anger now, but it did take the edge off ever so slightly. What transpired here would determine a lot of things for Saena, the heaviest of all being whether she would pull her status as heir or not.

He said nothing, and Saena assumed that meant he knew what this was about. There could be no doubt—he and his cohorts were responsible for the disappearance of yet another of Saena'a family members, the one she'd been closest to. "What the hell did you guys say to her to make her leave?" she asked coldly, and though she didn't say it, she was proud of how her voice made her anger feel subdued yet dangerous.

While he didn't much like her tone, Saena's anger was justifiable, so he did not rise to it. Careful not to add an edge to the words, he responded. He did not wish to drive her away as well. "When we spoke, she was resolved to accept punishment for going over Blue and my heads in the situation with Finley. Accordingly, we maintained that she would hold a low rank for a time, as yet undecided, until Blue or I deemed she was responsible and clearheaded enough to rise. She did not react well." There was little he could have done. In his eyes it had been a lenient punishment, for the time would probably have passed before she had even reached her first year. In fact, in delivering it he had wondered if he wasn't being too lax. Junior's reaction had taken him completely by surprise.

"It is to that you can likely attribute her leaving. She has not spoken to me in weeks, and I gave her space. I do not know further than that." Perhaps he should have approached, but likely that would have driven her off even sooner. He had learned that when Junior got something in her mind it was nearly impossible to dissuade her from it.

This got long fast. Will be shorter from now on!

Dante explained what Junior's punishment had been, making blindingly clear to Saena what he could not see. While Junior had never voiced any direct aspiration for eventual leadership, it was abundantly clear in both her behaviour and involvement that she was not a peon. She was not, at least in Saena's mind, a wolf who would ever take kindly to being beneath others she did not consider worthy of their places.

Perhaps because this was so obvious to Saena, she snorted. "Of course she didn't speak to you," she said exasperatedly, "that was pretty much the worst punishment you could have given her. Obviously, none of you know her at all." With a huff she fixed sharp indigo eyes on the Alpha, maintaining respect but barely, and said firmly, "Junior did what she thought would benefit this pack most, she cared about this pack and did not agree with wasting resources on someone who was already healthy enough to walk and who had no remorse for deserting us previously, so she did what had to be done. To strip her of her rank and make all that she has done here, all the work she's put into her trades, pointless was the worst thing you could have done to her.

She was a wolf who not only wanted to be an asset to this pack but was an asset who did a lot to help. You took her aspirations and you crushed them just because she sent an outsider who abandoned us away." A heated breath misted in front of Saena's face and she lashed her tail. "All because you guys are more concerned with maintaining friendships with wolves who abandoned you than taking proper care of those who were born here and would have stayed here. She was already pretty sick and needed help. She deserved to be spoken to. She did not deserve to be harshly punished for doing what is natural, especially given she clearly needed help."

She absolutely expected backlash for all this, but plowed on in hopes Dante would let her finish. "Why should I stay here when you guys would treat my sister that way when she's sick? If you'd punish her by invalidating her efforts, even temporarily, what would you do to me of I did something similar to an outsider?"

Dante listened quietly as Saena said her piece, the words almost but not quite eliciting a growl. It was suddenly clear to him again how strongly biased both Junior and Saena were, and how young. Did Junior fear so much losing a rank that she had never even held?. And did she think so little of her packmates that she expected to overshadow them?

"It was not her actions against Finley that I punished, and if she had expressed her feelings I likely would have sent Finley away with escort. Her reasons were good, but her course of action was not. We can't have members going over us like that and not do something to show it won't be tolerated. What would you have had me do to punish her?" He rumbled, frustrated. "I have been in your corner from the get go. I traveled to the Caldera and told Peregrine to his face that he and his pack were no longer welcome here. I threw out my own friendship with their pack and may very well have done the same to everyone else. But did you hear any of them complain? Even Blue, who was like a sister to him, stood behind it because we care about you.. And yet still you tell me that I am siding with outsiders."

He didn't know how to proceed. Either she would see that he was doing his best here or she would not, but he had done all he could to prove that he wanted his pack to be happy, the hell with the others. "I honestly don't think that's a question I can answer. I've told you my reasons and that I fully believe you belong here. But you have to believe it too." His tone held a bit of defeat. He could fight all he wanted to keep this pack together, but in the end he couldn't hold them all here. Junior had illustrated that point rather well.

It was plain to see, given the ease with which Dante dismantled her argument, that Saena was a teenager who had grown too passionate and hadn't wholly thought through her words. It was clear not only to him, who pointed out that he'd cut ties with Redhawk Caldera for them, but also clear to Saena herself, who felt tears welling in her eyes. She was incensed by the loss of another family member, cut to the bone by it, and felt the need to take it out on someone... the most logical being the wolf who had caused it.

"She was sick," Saena emphasized, somewhat more frantic than before, as though Dante was missing the point entirely, though moments earlier she'd made a different one. "You just needed to talk to her, not make her feel useless! Now she's gone, just like mom and dad and Ty are gone." By now, fat tears were dropping from her eyes, possibly revealing her true pain over the situation or possibly just making her seem even more dramatic than usual.

Now they hit on the true nature of the problem. And Dante's voice softened as he realized her distress wasn't completely focused on him. "I know. That is why when I dealt the punishment I also assigned her to speak with Lasher. He could have listened and helped, but I do not think she heeded my words even in that. And we cannot help those who do not wish it." He looked at her sadly. "I am sorry for that. I miss them too." Not that he in any way understood how she felt, his own broken family never having come close to the relationship her own had once held. But it was all he had to offer.

Atticus, Hawkeye, Peregrine, Ty, Junior, and even now Osprey. It seemed when it came to disappearing and leaving her family took the cake. And he wondered if she would follow in this as well. He definitely knew the feeling of having nothing to tie one down, but she could still have a family here if she wished it.

Her thoughts never seemed to touch on her uncle or her aunt. Both Atticus and Osprey were equally to blame for the troubled state of the Blacktail youths—Atticus perhaps moreso, for Osprey's absence was recent and unexplained whereas Atticus had been little more than a walking husk for a while before his disappearance. Yet somehow, Saena only thought of the obvious when she thought of who had left: Kisu, who had never bothered with his children beyond brief appearances; Hawkeye, who she'd come to despise in recent days; Peregrine, who she might never forgive or speak to again, especially now that Junior was gone; and Tytonidae, who had screamed how she hated them and never come back.

Junior would in time be added to that list, but with a great deal of reluctance. Pura was truly all that Saena had left anymore... Pura and this plateau, to which they were still heirs in her mind. "She wouldn't have spoken to Lasher," Saena mumbled thickly, pinning back her ears and looking away from Dante. "He was associated with da— with Peregrine, and Junior hated Peregrine. We even changed our names to Blacktail." Had anyone known that? Likely none but her and Junior.

"So this is my home, it's in my name, but no one... No one w-" where she was going with this thought was uncertain, for at that moment a sob broke through her throat and cut her off. What kind of home was it if everyone left or was made to feel they had to? She dared not allow herself to think of the consequences of Junior being out alone, half-healed... and dared not raise her voice again to the Alpha, despite wanting nothing more than to demand that he bring her back somehow.

Dante couldn't understand that. Was there anyone in the Plateau not associated with Peregrine? If anything, he would have thought him best suited since both would know the sting of being left behind. "She spoke with you, though?" He sighed. "I'm not surprised I did not know. She did not talk to me." He hadn't pushed to speak with her, but neither had she sought him out. It seemed she had made up her mind. Were she not injured still he wouldn't worry so much, but as it was, the situation was hardly a good one.

He had no idea what Saena would have finished with, but he assumed it wasn't positive. Dante's counseling extended more in the direction of advice. When it came to high emotion he rarely knew what to say or how to handle it. He did not often experience what others did, that feeling of not being wanted. He knew that to belong was a two way street and if you did not seek out attention from those you sought it from, could you really blame them for assuming you did not want it? But he did understand that her pain came from a real place, so would never belittle it by saying so. Her family had left, plain and simple, and that hurt.

Unsure of what to say, he remained silent, wondering if she would say what it was she wanted from them. Support he felt he had given, but if there was anything else he could do he would try his damnest.

"Of course," Saena muttered, thinking that that was obvious. They'd been two orphaned children whose parents hadn't cared about them. Peregrine hadn't asked his children to accompany him—sure, he'd opened an invitation to the entire pack, but it was followed closely by an expressed desire that none of them follow him—and Hawkeye hadn't bothered even putting time into their lives. It made sense that the two would bond over this and share with one another what they refused to tell anyone else.

This, of course, made it that much worse that Junior was gone. In time, Saena would come to view it as an accident or something that had to happen—in time, forgiveness would be second nature to her, but not toward those who had already wronged her—but for now, it was a painful mistake made by the leaders. It was their fault, she reasoned, though the voice of doubt had began to whisper as well.

Torn apart by what she was going through, Saena suddenly raised her head. Figuring that Junior would die in the wilderness, she said in a rough voice shaken by grief, "she liked you, you know. Like... more than a friend likes a friend, or than a subordinate likes an Alpha." Sniffing quietly, she thought how Junior would probably never view him that way again, if she even survived. Saena's previous belief that it was meant to be and that Junior was meant to lead them was shattered.

"I gotta go," she murmured, piecing herself together and abandoning her attempt to avenge her sister's memory by making the leaders realize how shitty they were at their jobs. Dante had successfully dismantled that argument and defused the situation. All that was left was for Saena to take some time and put it behind her, and maybe get on with living, and maybe heal, in time. Without a second glance the cowed teen began to trot away, her head held lower than normal and her tail pressed firmly against her rump.

Her revelation floored him for a moment, and he could do little but stare stupidly at her, even once she hurriedly dismissed herself and disappeared from sight. What the hell? He had not seen that coming, though thinking back, it kinda made a few things make more sense.

Well shit. He'd not thought to imagine she felt any more for him than he felt for her. Would he have handled things any differently had he known? Perhaps, but likely not. He still felt his actions had been right, and he could not have forseen Junior taking it so hard. After all, he had delivered the same to Koda for not attending a simple, but mandatory, pack meeting.

Well, what was done was done. And likely he had changed her opinion of him completely. If she had liked him before, he highly doubted she felt any of that fondness now.