It wasn't until they made it back to the Fiori territory that he let himself really absorb the reality of what had just happened. From the moment he finally broke apart from Bacchus to now he had felt numb. Relieved and tired and pained, but numb. He'd leaned against Svetlana the whole journey home, but once they reached the border he asked her to go back to the den to let their pups know everything was okay. He slowly made his way toward the den Amalia and Athena shared, hoping to find his sister there. He knew there were many healers in the pack these days, but Amalia was who he wanted to see right now. Not only because of the fact that he trusted that she would take good care of the wounds on the back of his skull and scruff, but also just to make sure she was okay. It couldn't have been easy for her, seeing him fight one of her sons. He still felt some guilt over it even though he hadn't had a choice in the matter. He stopped when he got close to the den, sitting down on his haunches with a heavy sigh. Moving wasn't hard, but his wounds hurt badly and he was simply exhausted. "Ama?" he called, hoping she would be back by now and would be able to hear him. He'd howl if he had to, but he didn't want to disturb Jayne and Diana or Athena if he didn't have to. "Talk" "You" Think

She didn't want to come back home. After the challenge she had stuck around to offer to treat her sons wounds, and after she just sat there in the bloodstained field. For the first time in her life, Amalia felt numb. For so long she had been strong, through everything she was able to keep a smile on her face and move on. She had helped Athena through her dark times, and was always there to offer her her brightness. But now... now she didn't know. Her mother had told her that it wasn't her fault, but she couldn't help but feel like it was. Maybe if she had loved him more, or made him stay home from that trip, than perhaps... Would it have been different? She watched the battle between her mother and her mate, and then it was all over. She was shocked, stunned and just... She had never felt like this before. But she knew that there were two wolves in that fight, and that Leo would be hurt. That is the only reason why she came back to Fiori. Amalia paused at the border, the sent of her brothers blood in the air. With a heavy sigh she moved on, paws nearly dragging as she made her way to her herb den. She would need to gather supplies to heal his wounds. From what she had seen there were two bad wounds on his neck, and she needed to play her part. But her steps faltered before she could get there, and the tiny woman heard her name being called. Turning back to her family den, she saw Leo sitting there, waiting for her. Making her way towards him she bumped her nose to his shoulder in a way of announcing herself, not a single word leaving her maw. Head tilted to show him to follow her, leading the way towards her herb den. Once there she stepped in without a sound, going to grab her things. But as soon as she entered the den and the scent of herbs surrounded her, memories of the fight flashed before her again. The woman froze, and just stood in the middle of her den. Her face fell downwards, nose almost brushing against the earth. Knees felt weak, and her body fell to the ground. This was all too much, far too much. "Burn Baby Burn"

He waited for a little bit and after a few moments he heard the soft sound of Ama's paws coming toward him. He turned his head slightly so he could see her out of the corner of his eye, but it hurt too much to fully turn his head. He felt her nose on his shoulder and saw her motion for him to follow, but she didn't speak. His ears fell back against his head as he watched her walk away toward her herb den. He pulled himself to his paws and did as he was told, following along in her footsteps slowly. He was just about to settle on his haunches again outside the entrance of her herb den when he notice her stop in the middle of it. A whine caught in his throat and he felt the guilt swallow him whole. He should have gone to Novel or Ara. He should have let Ama be with Athena and give her time to process. He slipped into the small den carefully, not wanting to disturb any of her herbs and things. He forgot about how tired he was and how much his neck hurt for a moment, too worried about his sister. He whined softly again, his ears still against his head as he gently nudged her shoulder with his nose. He eased himself down onto his haunches, his eyes watching her worriedly. "I'm sorry, Ama..." he said softly, his voice thick with emotion. "I didn't want to fight him... I don't know if that helps or not, but if there was anything else I could have done I would have." "Talk" "You" Think

Her ears flickered at Leo's whine, but she didn't move. She didn't even turn her head, her breathing coming in shallow gasps as she fought to maintain herself. It was far too late for that now though, wasn't it? Amalia was able to maintain her tears, all until Leo nosed her shoulder and plopped down beside her. Her tiny body quivered, and the flood gates opened. Turning her head into her brother she sobbed, hardly hearing his words over all the sound that she was making. She shook her head back and forth rapidly, not able to form words at the moment. It wasn't his fault, he was defending his pack, his home land. All of their home. What would have happened if Bacchus would have won? Would he have forced all the old Fiori members to stay, keep them locked up within the borders? She shuttered at the thought, letting her tears soak into his orange fur. When she was finally able to somewhat calm herself, her russet head lifted to seek out his blue gaze. A shuttering sigh left her lips, tears still slowly making their way down her cheeks. "No Leo, no. This is not your fault, not at all," she started, trying to smile. It faltered, her lips falling slack once more. "Mom told me that it wasn't my fault, but seeing Bacchus standing there..." she shuttered at the memory, dark blue eyes filling up again. "I couldn't help but feel like I brought this on myself some how. I should have raised him better, or... or been there for him! When he didn't come back from his trip for so long I didn't even go out and look for him. I just assumed that he was okay. I failed him as a mother," she whispered. She fell silent for awhile, not able to work out any more words. Several moments passed, and she shook her head sharply. Raising herself to her paws, she walked over to her herbs. Get it together girl. Looking back at Leo, she put on the act, forcing a smile. "Now! Enough of that. Let me see to your wounds. We wouldn't want them to get infected now, would we?" she asked with a giggle, but even to her own ears it sounded lackluster. Fake. She shook herself again, busing herself looking for the proper medication. She grabbed a touch of dried bonset to ease his muscles, they had to be sore after that fight. Plopping it down at her paws she moved across her dug out shelves, thinking as she did so. Did she need dandelion root? Glancing over at Leo, she shook her head to herself. No, not inflamed enough for that. Perhaps if they acted up a bit. Although, it could ease up any bruising he may have received. Looking back over her shoulder with slightly narrowed eyes, she looked him up and down. "Any bruising?" she asked. With all that fur, there was no way to tell. Turning around without waiting for an answer, one ear turned towards him, she moved on. Horsetail, where was her horsetail? The wounds on his neck needed to be patched up. Hmm. Ah! There it was. Grabbing a stock in her teeth she dropped that at her paws, carefully using her back leg to kick it towards Leo. Was that all she needed? The bleeding wasn't too bad anymore, she wouldn't need any cobweb to cover that up. Maybe some lambs ear for his lesser wounds.... "Burn Baby Burn"

It broke his heart seeing Ama like this. She turned her head into him and he let her cry as long as she wanted, his mismatched ears pinned to his head while he felt her tears soaking his fur. He leaned his muzzle down to gently lick the top of her head between her ears. She finally spoke, explaining the meaning behind the insistent shaking of her head. It relieved his guilt a bit to know that he wasn't to blame, but it didn't make him feel any better really. Just less guilty and more sad. Sad for Amalia and Athena, sad for this situation that Bacchus caused. The silence took over the den once again and just as he collected his thoughts enough to respond, she suddenly hopped up like a whirlwind, saying something about not wanting his wounds to get infected. He blinked and watched her hurry over to her herb store to start scrambling through them to find the right ones. He smiled slightly, the movement feeling as fake as her forced laughter. "No, we certainly wouldn't want that." He watched herb after herb he couldn't name be flung toward him till he heard her ask about bruising. He shifted the shoulder that had been forced into Bacchus' chest for most of the fight and it immediately protested the movement. His jaw tensed at the pain and he nodded. He noticed then that she had her head buried in her herbs again so he spoke just in case she hadn't seen. "Yeah, shoulder's bruised pretty bad." He knew why she was doing this. It was the same reason he made himself do patrols constantly at times or busied himself with checking on the structure of other's dens for safety or the like. It was a distraction. Whenever he got stressed over something he did the same thing, distracted himself from the real problem. "Amalia," he said simply and firmly, the single word asking her to stop and look at him. His concern was clear in the pull of his brows and the frown on his lips. "You did a fine job raising those boys. Look at Tiburtius. Vitus and Archie. All four of them were raised the same. It wasn't you. Bacchus was a fine young man before he left with Absinthe. There's no way of knowing what all happened while they were gone, but whatever it was it wasn't you. You didn't cause this. As for going to look for him, there was no way to know that he wasn't fine. No one expected you to go looking for him, not when he willingly went on an adventure. He told everyone he was leaving, it wasn't like he disappeared out of the blue. We were gone for ages. Some of our siblings are still gone. Do you see our mother out searching for them every waking moment? No. Not all wolves want to be tied to one place forever. It happens." He paused breifly, surprising himself with his own revelation. "To be honest, I respect him for challenging me. He's grown up. He knew what he wanted and he didn't let the fact that I was his uncle keep him from that... I think he wanted you. You and Athena. He wanted his family but he wanted it on his terms... If you ask me, I think that shows that you raised him just right. You raised him to be a brave, independent man that loves his family. That might have gotten skewed somewhere along the way, but that's really all it was when you strip away layers." "Talk" "You" Think

His comment about his bruised shoulder had her turning back to the dandelion root, tossing it over her shoulder towards the rest of her herbs. She was about to go and grab a few lambs ear as well, when his voice rang out. The way he said her name made her freeze, her entire body growing ridged. Looking slowly over her shoulder, her eyes grew misty all over again. She could see the worry in his gaze, and she sighed softly, head hanging. But it was clear that he wanted to say something, so she turned so that she could look at him, her flank at his head. She stood in a 't' shape with him, not ready to fully return to his side yet. When he began to spoke, her false calm started to crack. Lower lip quivered, soon her entire body shaking with the force of her holding back her tears. The more he spoke, the more she broke. At last she fell back down to the ground, covering her eyes with her front legs as her sobs broke free. Everything that Leo had said was true, it was so true. So why was she crying like this? Why did she still feel so torn up inside? Her and Leo had not been reunited for long, and there were so many more of their kin that they never saw. And their mother, she seemed like she had everything together, and she did stay here. Pip didn't go out looking for them at every chance she got, at least not that she knew about. But Amalia still felt like she could have done something to stop this from happening. Once she had calmed down she picked herself up, sniffling as her form shook. She couldn't keep blaming herself like this, she knew that. But it was a lot easier said than done. Amalia needed to be strong for her mate and her daughters, for her brother and her pack. Leo had paused from talking, and Ama busied herself with gathering all her healing supplies, slowly making her way back to his form. As he started to talk, she began to treat his wounds. The dandelion root was nosed to his front paws for him to eat, as well as the bonset. She started to press the soft lambs ear to his small cuts and scratches, grabbing the horsetail as she moved to the nasty wound on his shoulder. Licking the wound clean, she grabbed the stalk within her jaws and began to chew, the familiar bitter taste filling her mouth. Coating her tongue with the herb, she carefully licked it on to his wound. Leo was going on about how he actually respected Bacchus for what he did, which shocked the tiny woman. She listened as she moved across his body, massaging her paws over his muscles as she tried to feel for any knots or strains. She rubbed out as many as she could, trying to be as gentle as possible. "If he wanted us, he could have just come and told us. We would have welcomed him home without hesitation," she whispered, pausing in her work to look up at her brother. She smiled at him though, appreciating his words with all her heart. "And thank you Leo... you told me just what I needed to hear." Amalia added, going back and making her way up his other side. "Burn Baby Burn"

He hated feeling like he had made his sister cry, but he knew it wasn't him that had made her like this. It was this whole tricky situation. It wasn't something that he had ever imagined would happen, but it had and now all they could do was clean up the aftermath. Leo would give Ama all the time she needed, waiting patiently for her to get to her paws again, watching as she sniffled and gathered up the herbs she had been collecting from their storage place. He winced as she began her work, but he held still so he wouldn't disrupt her. It felt like hardly anything compared to the pain of actually getting those wounds, but they were still very tender either way. He gave a small shake of his head when Amalia said that Bacchus should have just come home if he wanted them. "No, I'm sure Bacchus knew that he could have come home, but he clearly didn't want to live with me, or anyone I'm sure, being an alpha over him. As long as you and Athena are living in Fiori he couldn't have you." It was a harsh truth, but it was how he saw it. Bacchus wasn't the same wolf that he had been before he left with Absinthe. Part of him felt a little guilty because he had been the one that had told the two of them they could leave on their adventure all that time ago. But he knew that even if he hadn't given them permission they could have still left on their own accord. The only thing that held wolves to a pack was their word. When she smiled at him and thanked him he gave her a slight smiled and replied, "No need to thank me, Ama. I'm just telling you the truth as I see it. You watch out for all of us here so often. You deserve to be cared for too." "Talk" "You" Think