Once upon a time he and the Inferni leader had been on better terms, possibly the best in the history of the two packs. Phoenix Valley and Inferni had never really gotten along, though the origins of the bad relationship branched back to Iskata's reign. Although the cyclops had been very fond of her, he knew long after her death that she -- and her family, having gotten to know DaVinci well as a subleader once -- had a bad tendency to make trouble. She and her children never fully thought out their intentions, and Jefferson had known DaVinci to approach Inferni borders completely undaunted like his mother had, demanding answers or peace of mind. With both DaVinci and Iskata gone, Inferni and the Valley had primarily been left to themselves. With the exception of an attack on Xeris -- something Jefferson figured she'd probably asked for, anyway -- the cyclops was surprised how few interruptions there had been.
With the rise of the war, Jefferson's suspicions had spiked once more. At first he had assumed the war was Inferni's fault, that they'd gotten in Haku's conceited way somehow and, put bluntly, pissed him off. Biased due to his daughter and half-sister in Dahlia, the cyclops had warned his members to run any Inferni members away and take no heed to their words, but a meeting with the Rosea had taught him otherwise. Jefferson didn't know of the immediate details, but it occurred to him that Inferni was the victim in the war and that Haku's reign was the reason for its waging.Perhaps it was out of the goodness of his heart or the need to be informed for the sake of his pack, but Jefferson had left Phoenix Valley for the northern clan that morning.
He hadn't expected what he first found. Ashes, charcoal remnants of whatever had stood there before, marked the innards of Inferni. It was barren, empty; no souls lived there still and the air choked with smoke. Unafraid, the cyclops stepped past what had been borders and ventured on, following the dead land north. Inferni and Phoenix Valley may have been enemies, but if there was any sign of Inferni life that had somehow been left behind, then Jefferson knew what had to be done. When had this happened? Why?
At a point, the ash and shadows ended and a new skull-topped stake stood, away from where the borders had once been. It seemed they had relocated and he breathed a sigh of relief before questioning himself on it. There was no need to dodge Inferni now, if a tragedy had occurred. The clan was too proud to burn down their own territory without taking something else with it. Could he help? The cyclops didn't know; he wasn't sure he wanted to. The brute still had questions that needed answers regardless of what dead land stood behind him, and with a point to the sky he sounded a non-threatening call, a sound of peace. Sorrow, worry lurked in its echo.