There was too much to process for the Valle man. Just a few hours ago he had been relishing in having a little more freedom with all the children and then Nash had been here… Now he, now everything was just too much. He felt like he was in a state of shock, like a thick cloud had settled down around him and he was just trying to move through the fog. If he could just get through it then maybe he could wake up from this dream, because it had to be a dream right?

Viorel moved towards the sound of the call without thinking, his footsteps slow and heavy as if each paw weighed a thousand pounds. By the time he reached Chan it had been several minutes longer than what would have been appropriate for a leader to answer a summons. He stood there, staring at the man, just blinking silently for a long time. Then his eyes finally focused on the body of his daughter, curled beneath a tree as if she were sleeping.

A broken sob escaped from the dark leader. He pushed past Chan without saying a word to rush to her side. He draped himself overtop of her, grooming the soft fur near her ears as if she was a child who wasn’t feeling well. He whispered, ”It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay.” Over and over as if that would somehow make it better.

So long passed that Viorel did not even know how much time it had been. It could have been minutes or hours, days even, though realistically it was probably more than an hour or so. He groomed her, nudged her face, whispered to her, anything to make it seem like this was normal and she was just going to wake up. He pointedly did not look down towards her leg after the first glance, if he didn’t look he could pretend it wasn’t there and that everything was just fine.

Eventually he became aware that Chan was standing there and that he couldn’t go on any further. He sighed, a deep emotion from the depths of his chest and licked his daughter’s forehead one more time. Looking back at the other man the anger that he had felt towards Nash returned, though slightly more tempered. The logical part of him was aware that this was just a freak accident and the mountain wolves couldn’t have prevented it. But, a larger part of Viorel needed to have someone to blame and for now it would be them.

Standing up as composed as he could manage he looked over the tawny wolf behind him with hatred in his eyes. Flaring his nostrils he tried to keep his voice cool, ”Thank you for returning her. Now leave. And don’t you or anyone else from the Cove ever come back here.” He meant what he had said earlier, and maybe one day he would grow to regret this, but for now this was what he needed.

The father let out a shaky breath through his nose while Chan spoke, trying to stay present and grounded. It was hard, what with his head swimming with emotion and so much information coming so quickly. He grit his teeth and felt hot all over, clenching his eyes shut by the time that the other man had finished talking. He turned his muzzle ever so slightly away as salt coloured lips curled revealing yellowed fangs underneath.

He had no idea that Chan was lying, had no reason to think he was or doubt him, but it didn’t make him feel any better about it. He groaned, ”And you’re the one who let Isla run away?” His voice was strained, harsh and coarse as if it were physically painful for him to be having this conversation. He still couldn’t look up, couldn’t open his eyes, ”You let me lose both my daughters?” The accusations were clear, and there was no sign of disbelief but Viorel couldn’t decide if Chan being kicked out was enough punishment. He had expected Nash and Oksana to be closely involved, as he had been, and they had passed the duty on to someone who they trusted but failed. Wasn’t this also on them? He couldn’t tell.

The tears came again, hot and fast down the leader’s face and he had no shame about allowing the other man to see. After all, he was the one standing here claiming to have caused them. Claiming to have caused all of this. He inhaled sharply after a long minute of silence and for him that broke the curse of the emotional tsunami he had been dealing with. The thin thread he had been holding onto that had been stopping him from tearing Chan apart broke.

But instead of lurching forward, he fell deep back into the fog that had been holding him before. He blinked slowly a time or two and his feature’s smoothed as he slipped into the sweet relief of dissociation, Finally he spoke, ”Well. You had better go find her. If you return Isla safely then maybe we will consider forgiving any of you for what you have done.” He blinked again once more, ”Now I asked you to leave. We have a burial to start thanks to you.” He stared at him, waiting for him to turn away and not ready to accept any other outcome.

Once Chan had left, Viorel lifted his head to the sky and called for the Backwater wolves; he would need help carrying Sephrina back to the resting place of their other dearly departed. Sephrina deserved to be with Katna, and Walleye and Inger, with her family.