Wilder glanced over towards the kangaroo and immediately perked up at its friendliness. Her ears went straight and her eyes gleamed with happiness. She had been a little nervous that it would be an unfriendly one, like some of the other children were, but apparently not! "Hi! I'm Wilder! Yeah, I know Dragon! I'm..." she cut herself off here with a small glance towards the alligator. She remembered that she was supposed to be secretive about this stuff and perhaps the kangaroo didn't know anything about the Children of Rot yet. She wouldn't bring it up until one of them did. "...his friend!" That was safe to say.

She opened her mouth again to thank the joey but Dragon's simple, demanding tone caught her attention and she faltered with a stutter, the joy falling off her face. She blinked and faced Dragon with a dip of her head. Her ears pulled back and her tail drooped. "The goose. Pride spoke to you." It wasn't a question. She already knew. Where to start, though? With Aure, she had started with the Collector and his mission for her, but telling Dragon that the he had sent her to gather information on his group that was made for keeping secrets didn't seem like such a good idea. Not now. Not yet. She wouldn't lie, she'd just...leave it out. "I found her in a cave. Actually that tunnel, the one by Eridanus. I'd heard stories about her before but...she was miserable. And I mean, I've never seen someone so low before. She'd lost her family, her love, her son. She was broken and I couldn't just walk away. I would never have forgiven myself if I had, even if she had done really really bad things."

Her tail flicked and she blinked slowly. "I wanted to help her," she repeated, "so I told her I'd help her find someone that she was missing. I thought that Pride might know...we used to be friends. But he must have intruded on my mind because he found out where she was. He promised me that he'd set up a trial for her so that people that hated her and people that didn't could decide what to do with her. I warned her...I know I shouldn't have, but I had to. And I had to tell her that that the one I was searching for, Blueberry, was dead. Killed by the Seven. Pride left without me and went straight to her. And he killed her. Horribly. I could hear the screams from Orion." She shivered a bit and stopped there. She would not reveal, yet, the last bit of information until she saw Dragon's reaction. If he cast her out and cursed her for helping Blackberry, then he could not know she was still alive.

Wilder only spared a small glance towards the joey before she turned her full attention to Dragon. She was in trouble. With a lot of people. The Bonebound, at least, had forgiven her. Now time to make amends with the Children of Rot...or leave. Usually she had to try to stay serious, but after all the pain that her choices had caused her and Blackberry, it wasn't hard to keep her childish antics out of this.

"With respect, Dragon, I wasn't going to tell anyone about it, besides those I trusted the most with the information." She seemed to have completely forgotten that she had, in fact, told someone and not just anyone but Blackberry's worst enemy. Or, perhaps, she simply remembered it differently. "And I don't believe that she was a threat at the time. I can show you, if you like, what I remember. She was weak and shriveled and screaming for me to kill her. There is no one with the talent to put up an act as real as that." She shook her head, a shiver running down her spine. "I...I'm not as detached and impartial as you. I couldn't leave her like that in good conscious. I had to do something. And I didn't even do much - I gave her food and went out to look for her friend!" Her tail twitched again and she struggled to keep her expression level and her voice in control. "Pride told me something similar - that I had no right to decide her fate. I was ready to leave it up to a trial, for those that she had wronged and other neutral voices to decide what to do with her. I thought that's what Pride intended on doing...but he lied to me and killed her anyways."

Wilder opened her mouth to respond but then shut it. What could she say to that? To any of that? Dragon was right, she knew he was, just as she knew Pride was right. She had acted irrationally. She shouldn't have protected the goose. But did she even protect her? She tried to think back to what she had done. She had had every intention of helping the goose, but not sneaking her into Cetus or Orion or Canis, simply help her see the joy in life again, to find a new path, to maybe find some kind of happiness, if there was any left for her. She didn't see how that could jeopardize anyone.

But...if she had been wrong? If Blackberry had lied to her? Maybe that's what Dragon was talking about. If she really had been playing Wilder for a fool and would strike out at the weak whenever she got a chance. The cat was confused and she was starting to get a headache from all this thinking. "It...wasn't like that. I...uh..." a veil of confusion fell over her face for a moment as she tried to remember the exact context of what she had been saying to Blackberry. "I was telling Blackberry about Blueberry and she didn't seem to react to anything. So I asked her what she was going to do about Pride and the Bonebound coming for her. If she was going to leave, I would have followed her and gotten her to stay. I swear on my life I wasn't going to just let her walk free." If that was even the point of this whole thing.

But now it was down to it. Had she done anything wrong? Aure hadn't questioned her about this. He had fallen into understanding pretty quickly. But this wasn't the Bonebound, this was Dragon and the Children of Rot - skeptical, secretive, wary. So she was silent for a minute as she considered everything.

"...no. I don't. I...I don't regret wanting to help her, but I should have thought about it more. I should have come to you or Aure or Pride first. I shouldn't have contacted her when Pride told me not to. I wasn't thinking about what could have happened if she was lying or something. I'm sorry." She bowed her head shamefully and went quiet, her tail flat in the mud and her eyes staring miserably down at the brown earth below.

Wilder looked back up and tilted her head, expression filled with confusion. Did Dragon misunderstand her? Perhaps she should have been more clear. "N-no, I said I don't believe I did nothing wrong. I made a lot of mistakes and I did a lot of things wrong." She wondered if there was a point in time in which she had thought she'd done everything correct, that it was everyone else's fault. Her memory was not perfect...but perhaps then, she had made those decisions because she had really thought they were the right ones. Had she really grown that much in such a short period of time?

She wasn't really prepared for Dragon's next question, but she was a little surprised that she wasn't. It wasn't exactly a secret. She shifted a little awkwardly, but she definitely wasn't going to lie or skip truths on this one. "I'm unsure. I spoke with Aure about it - I had a really bad one some time ago and he felt threatened, but I've never hurt anyone. I'm working on figuring out what the cause it but...I've agreed to limit my spell usage for the time being and distance myself a little from large groups, for their safety. Until I've figured out a solution." Her ears perked a little bit. "But I'm getting better! I usually know when they're coming and I can stop it!"