The man didn't know how many days it had taken him to get to The Bifröst or to get back to Ebony for that matter. All he knew was that he had spent a few hours in the sand and had spent the entire journey back miserable. The damned sand was itchier than hell and almost impossible to get out. He had managed to get most if not all of the sand off by the time he had reached the boarders leading to Firefly lake. During that miserable time he had made two Decisions.

The first of those to decisions was to split up his herb stores between the Alpha and Ebony's healer. Since he wasn't aloud to do the only thing he knew how to do well, they were of no use to him so why let the precious plants go to waist. Surly the other two healers, or at least Kassander, should Callisto want nothing to do with his plants, would be able to put them to better use than what he was currently aloud to do. The second of the two decisions was a more difficult one to make. The second meant he would have to leave his den and risk no longer being a part of Ebony but at this point the only thing that really meant anything to him was the den he would be loosing.

By the time Maximous would tilt his head to the sky and call out for Kassander, he will have already evenly split his stores in half. The only thing that would not be split was what already belonged to Callisto, her bundle of herbs was sitting with her half. Now all that was left to do was wait. He would pace circles around the large tree that sat atop his den. Sitting still was agonizing, the only time he could stand to do so was when he was so tired that he collapsed of exhaustion.

Kassander was taking a moment to clean what remained of last year's herbs out of one of his old caches. With summer in full swing and winter approaching he needed the room to fill it with fresher herbs before the coming autumn frost killed them. It was also one of the ones that had been flooded during the bad storms the summer before, so he was modifying it to prevent any new herbs from mildewing as did the old ones. Maximous' call had him dragging himself out of the cache-den to prick his ears cautiously toward the sound before he shook dirt and brittle plant matter out of his auburn coat and set off to track down the black Nomad. Coming to a stop not far from the wolf, Kassander took in the piles of herbs before Maximous and his brow raised in silent question (though a twinge from the still healing facial wound told him that was a bad idea) and asked neutrally, "What can I do for you, Maximous?"

Max would only stop his pacing when Kassander's voice would reach his ears. Without the movement his mind would once again begin to stir, but at least he wasnt sitting. Sitting always made it worse. For now though the man would force himself to stand in one place and attemt friendly a conversation.

"I made a promise..." his ears would lay againced his head for a moment and then stick back up as his blue eyes would stare at the ground before he would finish his sentence "to Callisto, that if she wanted nothing to do with me then I would make sure she wouldnt have to." saying her name was like a slap to the face but he would try to keep the Alpha from seeing that.

A few seconds would pass before he would look from the ground to the herbs in the ground. "I thought that you and Ebony's healer could make better use of them than I can since ive been demoted. Im only keeping a few in case I need a bandage. he would then turn back to Kass to see if the boy had even been listening and then decided he didnt care anymore.

"Also, in order to keep that....promise, I wanted to move my den." again the man would pause but this time it was to make sure this was what he had wanted. "I want to move it to just outside the boarders. I still want to be apart of ebony but ill understand if you would rather I just become a loner."

Kassander listened silently as Maximous spoke, only looking away to glance down at the herbs as Maximous indicated them before returning his intent gaze to Maximous. This was... not good. This was just another symptom of a problem he'd been aware of for a while, the way that Ebony existed not as a family, but as a group of disparate individuals who just happened to cohabit the same lands. Did either of them really consider the ramifications of what they were doing when they came to him like this? Or did both of them care so much more about their own selfish comforts that they didn't care if the rest of the pack even continued to exist outside of their personal issues?

"You can den where ever you want to," he finally said as Maximous wound down. His voice wasn't accusing, but it was quite serious as he continued. "But you need to seriously consider if you actually want to be part of this pack, regardless of whether or not Calli is here. You both agreed to be part of something bigger than yourselves when you joined Ebony under my mother. You both agreed to put the pack's needs before your own. When is the last time you spoke to someone in this pack other than myself or Calli? When is the last time you participated in something to better yourself, or the pack? When is the last time you hunted for someone other than Calli or yourself?"

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I demoted you in the hopes that you would realize that you were going down a path that wasn't healthy for Ebony, but you've ignored it. I don't know why. Maybe you assume that since I'm so much younger that I couldn't possibly know how to be an alpha. Maybe you don't care. I don't know, Maximous but I'm beginning to think you don't actually care about the rest of Ebony at all. I don't know what to do for you - but you need to make a choice. You need to choose to either be with Ebony a hundred percent, through the good and the bad... or you need to make the decision to find someplace else." The finality of the ultimatum was staggering to him, and not long ago he would have quaked beneath it, but maybe the siege had made him finally take the last step into actually taking responsibility for being an alpha.

The man would nod and open his mouth to thank Kassander for letting him den where ever he pleased but quickly closed it as Kass had continued talking before Max could say anything. He would stand and listen to the boy as best he could, but the voices were slowly coming back and clouding his mind. The pain his mind was causing was slowly numbing all feeling.

Eventually Max wouldd no longer care that he had been rejected or even feel the emotion that her hatred towards him held. It hadnt been long enough though, today was not that day, so he would find himself simply nodding to what Kass had to say. When the alpha had finished by giving him an ultimatum Max would have something to say.

It wasnt as mush as he usually would. Then again he usually didnt have a cloud lingering over his mind. "Thank you for letting me move to outside the boarder. And just so you know, she hates me so I could care less as to whether she decides to stay or not. As for speaking to others or bettering myself the last time I did that was when you made me go to the fight practice."

He would watch Kassander for a moment with as little emition in his features as he could. "I havent spoken to anyone or cought food for anyone because I didnt think they would want me to. The only wolf that has shown me any kind of attention has acted as though he wants to rip my face off." his face would shift from emotionless to his brows being scrunched together in thought and agrivation at himself.

His head was getting cloudier. The longer he stood still, the more muddled his thoughts would become. It took several moments to pice together something that would be listened to, something that could be understood and maybe even dig him out of the hole he had probbably just dug with his last words. "I thought I had just been demoted because I hadnt agreed, publickly, with Katja's decision to leave Val in charge. Because I had brought Callisto to my den without prior permission and because I spoke out of term."

Several more moments would pass as Max would try to force his brain to work for only a few more words. "I made my choice a long time ago Kass, ill hunt and try to be more social but I wont fight...I cant..." and with that he couldnt stand still any more. Maximous would once again begin his pacing though he wouldnt go mor than a few yards away from Kassander in any direction.

Kassander listened to Maximous speak, and as he did he found it difficult to hide his growing dismay. The black wolf wasn't that old - only a couple years older than Kassander himself - yet he was displaying the sort of behavior that Kassander would have expected with a tottering old man suffering from dementia. The querulousness, the childish behavior, the seemingly wandering attention. The paranoia, and odd behaviors. Was this why a wolf that his mother had seemed to respect so much could act in such a manner?

He shook his head in frustration as Maximous ceased to speak. For the moment he would ignore Maximous' insistence that he wouldn't - couldn't - fight, and would focus on the original subject. "Maximous," he said, firmly but in the gentle manner one might use with a child. "Do you really think that anything you just described is someone acting in the best interests of the pack, and not themselves? The first thing you did when my sister was appointed alpha was to publicly undermine her leadership. You didn't tell anyone about Callisto going missing, but as soon as she reappeared you overstepped your rank in welcoming over the border a wolf who had been in an unknown place for an unknown amount of time, and instead of contacting me immediately you went hunting rabbits for them. You let your personal feelings for someone cloud your judgement when it came to the safety and security of the pack as a whole. You refuse to participate in nor did you initiate training sessions. You refuse to interact with the other members of the pack unless I force you to. You constantly and consistently sulk about and seek to undermine my leadership. You have not made a single attempt since I have been alpha to be a wolf of Ebony. Do you see now why I demoted you? Do you understand that these are not the actions of a wolf who supports and wants to be part of this pack?"

He sought to lock eyes with the older wolf, insistently, seeking to observe through Maximous' reaction to his words and by that reaction, to form his own decision about what to do with the former healer. As an alpha alarm bells were ringing in his head, but as a healer... well, completely different alarm bells were ringing and they were pulling him in two different directions.

Max would listen to Kassander speak to him as he paced back and forth in front of the young Alpha. It was easier to to listen while he moved, yet couldnt understand why he had been so calm and clear while he had been talking to Kreft yet he couldnt stand still now. Was it because he was nervous here or was it just because he hadn't truly admitted to himself or to Kass that in a way he had been an ass without trying to be but had spoken with no worry of being in trouble to the loner.

When Kass would finish speeking, Maximous would force himself to stand still and meet Kassander's eyes with his own. "Your right. Ive been an ass without trying to be since Katja left. You nore your sister deserved it but I wasn't exactly wrong about what I told your sister. She did leave, so she either wasnt ready for it or she never truly wanted it." he would pause for a minute hoping Kassander's agrivation hadnt gone higher with his words. "I tried to trust you when your sister left, but based on your family's recent abandonments I couldnt help but wonder if you were going to do the same thing. Max would start to pace again as he had said that. This time Callisto wasnt the main cause, but rather his own anxiety. The man was tired of being in trouble and losing everyone he cared about. "I should have told you she had been taken, but I hadnt because you had just recently been made alpha and I had already tried to track her down. I didn't figure two of us needed to worry about something we couldnt change. When she came back I was just happy she was still alive, I should have at the very least let you know that she had come back but I hadnt because I knew you would want to talk to her ans she barely wanted to speak to me. I was trying to protect her, not undermine you. I considered your mother my sister and you, along with your siblings my nieces and nephews.

Maximous would stop pacing once more to look Kassander in the eye. Once more to gage the other mans thoughts and agrivation. But again was unable to pinpoint anything with the way his brain had been, would continue to be for a while. "Kass I did all of that just to find out the only woman ive ever loved the way I love her hates me. That everything I did was for nothing. Yet the other day when I thought someone wantd to hurt her
all I could think of was to protect her. Well me asking you to move my den outside the boarder isnt for me or for her. Its for everyone in Ebony. As long as I live within firefly lake she wont come near it because she doesn't want to run into me. As Ebony's healer she needs to travel to both ends of our territory and she wont as long as I am at one of those ends. But in doing so im also keeping my promise to her."