Rage sat in silence now with her daughter, starring out towards the ocean from a high rocky ridge, one she knew quite well, where she had had played as a child with Malik, where she looked out towards the sea, and back towards the valley, back towards where she had run from, back towards where Phib and Amelie had found her.

"So I...you..." Tearh couldn't make sense of it. Her mother had told her something secret, something dark, something about a torn feeling inside her, how she wasn't..whole, but she still did not understand. "How can they...be part of you? There are different, they act completely-"

"I don't know how it got to be that way Tearh, I don't but its true, Ryu and Ano are as much a part of myself as you are to me, we are all linked and by the mark," Rage turned to face her daughter, eyes soft with sympathy, wanting forgiveness, "Your brother does not carry it, and I wish I had not passed it to you..."

"But why? Why can't you just..be whole again? Make Ryu and Ano go away? I don't understand mother, I don't!" Tearh said standing up, head high, tail rigid, "Why not just confront the past? Face this...Croanyl, wolf, Arguin, whatever, fix it mother! Face what you ran from, don't be a coward and-"

"Silence!" Rage said with a snap, turning towards Tearh, eyes narrowed,, "You think its all a game? You think its that easy? What I saw as a pup is something no one should suffer, I cannot go back Tearh, this is my home now, this is where I belong, where I am meant to be."

"NO!" Tearh said with a slight snarl, facing her mother, not standing down. "You said that Philokiss said this mark means something, that it has to return to open the valley again, go back mother, open it again! Maybe if you went back, you would become a seer or shaman...or both, like the story, like Arguin-"

"Becoming both was what drove Arguin to betraying his own pack. Its a cycle, don't you see Tearh? The valley will rise and fall, and continue to do so until it was broken, its broken now Tearh, and no one can hurt again, we're safe here, safe in Phib's land, safe with him and Amelie and-"

Tearh could not udnerstand her mother's words, could not understand why she would act in such a manner. If their ancestry was in another place, from another time, why would she not want to return, why wouldn't she? "They aren't your flesh and blood! They are your parents mother!"

Rage snarled at Tearh, snapping her jaws dangerously close to her nose, "Don't you dare Tearh... if it wasn't for Amelie and Phib, I wouldn't be here, you would not exist, your father and I would not have found eachother," Rage turned form her, looked towards hte ocean again, and feared to look back at the mountains. "You don't understand what Philokiss meant..."

Tearh watched her, took a step towards her mother, tail between her legs, "Your afraid of it...aren't you?" Tearh asked, waiting, watching, watching what words she let roll off from her tongue. "What don't I understand mother?"

Rage sighed, dropped her head, "yes...I'm afraid I'll loss everything that means most..." she took a breath, and did not face her daughter, "The mark must return of the prophecy, I was the one to bear this burden, of black pelt, red mark, one with the symbol must open the valley, Ryu and Ano cannot do it alone, or together without the prophesized one Tearh," she turned to her daughter, eyes once amber slowly now, over time, turning to silver, "Your right Tearh, I'm afraid, I'm afraid because one of us must go back...I don't want to lose you."

Tearhw ent to speak but the words were caught in her throat. One of them, between herself and her mother? How could that be? Tearh sat next to her mther, looked out towards hte ocean. Go back and face something like that, face the past, even face Croanyl on the way would be dangerous...life threatening, Tearh and her mother might lose one another...be separated..forever.

"No you know my daughter, why it is not easy for me to have told you this, I fear for what your friends might think if they knew, wanting to go, or wanting to stay here, I don't want you hurt, don't want to lose what I've wanted for so long..family...peace."

"I'm sorry mother...I-I should have known," Tearh said with a gentle breath, leaning on her mother's shoulder. Her ridgeback mane slowly pushed by the gentle breeze.

"Its alright Tearh," Rage spoke softly, "Everything will be alright."