All welcome, but only 1-2 people please! Gardenia Grove.
It wasn't much of a surprise that he'd been scarce as of late. Now manning Phoenix Valley single-handed, Jefferson spent a majority of his time scouting and keeping tabs on his members. DaVinci's departure had returned extra responsibility to the Patriarch's daily life; he took it in stride and held his bitter feelings of abandonment to himself. DaVinci had been one of few that knew the darkest secrets of the cyclops and understood the complicated machinations of the one-eyed beast and his often sporadic and unpredictable behavior. The two had never truly gotten along as a normal friendship would have predicted, but their relationship had been a rivaling friendship. They had known to be themselves around each other; DaVinci had seen Jefferson at his absolute worst, and yet the silver-furred hybrid had stood alongside the three-legged idiot and picked up the slack where the Patriarch failed in leading the pack. Knowing that he was once again on his own, however, put a caustic concoction of feelings in the pit of his stomach. The once-loner Jefferson now hated working on his own. DaVinci's assistance had enabled the cyclops the space to breathe, think, and raise a pup in addition. What did Addison think of it all, now that her grumpy guardian was so suddenly hard to find?
The smiles he'd put on were no front when he'd addressed his members on the pack's birthday. Perhaps the initial shock and disappointment hadn't set in quite yet; Jefferson was not struggling, so to say, but the slight sag of his shoulders and the shuffle of his feet made perfect evidence that he was not quite as sharp and peppy as his usual self might have been. Even a stone-faced idiot like Jefferson could miss his close friends when they so suddenly left him behind. Then again, what else was new? Iskata had died, Zana had moved to Inferni, DaVinci had left (as well as his children, though Ty returned). Perhaps it was something within the bloodline that drove Iskata's children to wander and leave when they saw fit.
The rain had been particularly miserable all morning. It had downpoured from the second he'd stepped from the ranch to start his rounds along the pack borders to spot stragglers. Of course, there was none to be found and the cyclops was struck with an unsurprising case of disinterest, at which he rather abruptly decided on a break to escape the rain. The scent of gardenias (though dulled by the thick rain) attracted him from his route and the Luperci wandered the grove aimlessly, ignoring the trickle of rain as it tapped at his nose and ears and soaked him from head to foot. Even in the rain, the flowers were their usual brilliant shade of indigo and blue; he could only stand and admire them, raw and defenseless against the downpouring of the rain and the mist that had risen in turn.