Long after the meeting with the leaders had taken place, Wilder had gone back to the tunnel where it had happened, curious about a small thing she had found. Well, perhaps it wasn't small, but it had sparked her curiosity. The rock she had inspected before was still there, but it wasn't hissing like it was before.

She sniffed it again, completely sure she had smelled that odor before. It was a dark smell, kind of disgusting, and almost similar to the dusty smell of Canis but more...fresh. It smelled like bones and also blood. And other things that she couldn't place. Where had she smelled it before?

She sat there thinking about it, inspecting the rock from every angle. Why was it here? What was so special about it? She didn't say anything, only place her paw against the rock. Was it magical? Was it an illusion? No to both things, really, as her paw touched it and it felt like pretty much every other rock.

Maybe there was something behind it! It was definitely a possibility, so she stepped back, so as not to hit herself, and reached forward with a tendril of magic. As it latched onto the rock, she spread it over the surface and commanded it to lift. It shivered and then slowly began drifting into the air. Just as it did, the hissing started, but much more desperate this time, much louder and angrier. Wilder almost dropped the rock with surprise, but managed to safely toss it away with more haste.

She was right - there was a tunnel behind the rock, a small little alcove really, with a sickly, dirty creature staring at her from the darkness.

She'd been sleeping for a long time. Stuck in the shell of the chrysalis for many cycles, just as her other children recovered in the cave nearby. But even longer then them she stayed asleep, mulling in her grief, in her despair, trying to sleep away her mistake, all of her mistakes, so that, when she awoke, it would all be back to normal. Blueberry would be beside her, her children would be gathered around. Huckleberry would be twitching and mumbling in his sleep. Elderberry's head would be resting in his mane of feathers. Baneberry would be curled next to her father, her head under her wing. Jayberry would be close to her, the smallest of whistles coming from her nose as she breathed out. Mulberry would be right next to her, pressed up against her side. That was how things should have been, how she wished they would stay.

But now Blueberry was gone, missing. Baneberry had abandoned them; no, Blackberry had abandoned her. Mulberry had disappeared. Huckleberry had become too distant. And Elderberry...Elderberry was dead.

The images replayed in her head over and over in her sleep. Her son, her beloved, precious son, crushed, ground into dust and the dust swallowed into nothing. Did his gem even survive? Was Blueberry's gift to her now destroyed into nothing?

The guilt weighed her down. The guilt destroyed her. And so when the chrysalis finally spat her out and she found the entrance to her little tunnel blocked, she did not care. She would rather die here, where she and Blueberry had first met, where she had first seen his stupid little face, then go back out into the world and face everything.

In the time that she had been hatched, she had nearly died from starvation and dehydration. But her body's own instinct to live constantly kicked in. She drank from tiny puddles that gathered by the corner of the boulder. She ate mice and bugs, whatever dared to enter the cave. But now...things were going to change.

The first time she had heard the cat calling, she had simply hissed and the cat had gone away. She forgot about it for a while until she heard the gentle pattering of feet outside. Of course, she thought nothing of it,. They would not come in. There was no way they could come in. The way was blocked and unless they were a giant, there was no way to move it.

She had forgotten about magic, of course, so when the stone shivered and began to move, she had freaked out. Her eyes widened and she hissed and spat, pressing against the corner of the cave like a cornered animal, the claws on her chest flexing, as if thirsty for the blood of the intruder. As light began to flood her tiny cave, she shied away, her eyes snapping shut as pain burned into them. She blinked and tried to get a view of the intruder, but it was difficult as her eyes screamed in protest. She managed to just barely glance towards the entrance and there stood a cat, a kitten, more like, that she had never seen before.

She didn't relax at all, nor did she stop hissing. In fact, it intensified when she saw the stranger. She hissed and spat and showed her fangs. She hated her. She hated the cat. She hated her for bringing back the light and for opening her cave. She hated that she had destroyed the only barrier between herself and the world, the world she so despised and wanted to flee from. She just wanted to die.

"PUT IT BACK," she began to screech. "PUT BACK THE ROCK! LEAVE ME BE!!" She turned away from the light, unable to handle it anymore, but began to scrape at the ground with her claws furiously, at least to show the cat that she would hurt her if she came any closer.

Wilder had also never seen the bird before but the smell that came from the cave, it smashed right into her and she knew exactly where she had smelled it before. And she knew exactly who she was looking at.

For a moment, it didn't really register. All she saw was a horribly thin, mutilated bird creature pushing herself into the corner of the cave, hissing and spitting, her eyes wild with terror and Wilder herself backed away a bit, her ears pressing against her head. She thought that the goose was going to jump out and attack her or something. Not because of her reputation, that hadn't quite sunk in yet, but simply how terrified she was and how angry that she had taken the rock away.

But when she realized who she was looking at, she paused. "...Blackberry?" She had heard the name uttered many times and only recently had she been able to connect it to the Bloodberries. She'd been in their tunnel many times, the deserted tunnel still smelling of the family. The smell was so strong on Blackberry that it couldn't have been anyone else.

She slowly stepped into the cave, keeping herself in a nonthreatening position, before turning around and reaching for the magic again. The rock shivered and began rolling back into place, although it was more difficult this time from the shock still present in Wilder's head. She still thought to keep a small gap, a gap too small for most creatures, but big enough for both her and Blackberry to squeeze out of.

Once the cave was mostly dark again, she turned back to the goose. She wanted to approach but she knew that even a single step closer would only make her more angry and unreasonable. So, instead, she sat down and waited for Blackberry to calm down.

She waited, covering her eyes, for something to happen, anything. For the cat to go away, for it to kill her, or for it to mercifully put the rock back in place however the fuck it had done it before. A huge wave of relief washed over her when heard the rock tremble and begin to roll back in place. She waited for it to stop before opening her eyes again. To her outrage, there was still a gap in the rock so she could leave.

She didn't want to leave! She wanted it cover the whole entrance! She wanted to be sealed back up completely where nothing could find her. Where no one could find her. Not her family, not Pride, not Blueberry, wherever he could be. She wanted to be alone.

She sat in silence for a moment, wishing that the cat could have moved the rock back in place when her eyes adjusted back to the dark and she saw two pink orbs glowing from the darkness. The cat was still here.

She hissed again and pushed herself further into the corner. "What do you want?" her voice was hoarser then it ever had been before, heavier, darker. "I want to be left alone."

Wilder stayed silent and still, forcing herself not to move a single inch, keeping her ears and tail exactly where they were. The goose seemed to not notice her presence at first, but when she was detected, she couldn't help but swivel her ears at the sudden noise.

What did she want? Well, she wanted to know about the Bloodberries. She was supposed to collect information for the Collector, but Blackberry wasn't where she was supposed to be. Tunnel N was deserted and few traces of the family remained. And the mother, the leader, she was on her own now too.

But now there was another reason. Wilder had not very often been faced with hard decisions or tough choices. She hadn't seen a lot of hardship or evil, save for her stint with Greed. But this creature was broken. She had heard stories about Blackberry and the atrocities that she committed. How many she had killed or maimed or wounded forever. But looking at her now...she didn't care.

"I'm Wilder," she whispered in a strangely calm, soothing voice. What she was supposed to say next, though, was tricky. Perhaps if she was working at normal speed, she would have blurted out that she was looking for Blackberry and the family to gather information, but she realized now that it would be distasteful and counterproductive to mention such things. She was hyper aware of what she was doing and saying at this point. "I want to help you. Nobody wants to be left alone. At least not forever."

Blackberry's beak snapped and her eyes narrowed as the cat, Wilder, began to speak. She didn't relax, but she at least was no longer forcing herself against a wall to get away. The soothing tone of the cat's voice, at least, helped her understand that she meant no harm and, honestly, it was a bit of a nice feeling to have someone just talking to her.

But her pride was still buried in her, underneath all those fractured pieces and she hissed low. "I don't give a shit about who you are. I want to be left alone." Perhaps old Blackberry would have struck out at the cat here, but the memories were still fresh in her mind and the thought...the thought of striking the kitten, making a cut in her black fur, it was horrifying to her and she made a strange noise in her throat at the thought.

The noise dissolved into a hoarse, humorless laugh. "You want to help me? Go away. You don't want to be helping me. I don't want you helping me. There's nothing here for you." Her stomach teeth finally closed shut, tight around her stomach. "Leave me alone."

Wilder frowned and finally moved a bit, shuffling her body just a bit closer to Blackberry. She'd never seen or heard such a despairing, hopeless creature before. Looking at the goose in the darkness, she could see how terrible she looked. Hunched and thin, eyes dull with pain and her tail was completely gone. All birds had tails, didn't they? What had happened to hers? How had she gotten to this horrible state?

She wondered if this was what it was like for Aure to deal with her when she was having her trances just with more magic casting and more...whatever else she did during her trances.

She didn't really know what to do. She wanted to help Blackberry, she wanted to do something, but what could she do? What helped her when she was feeling down? Talk about it? But Blackberry seemed way too resistant to say anything. She sighed, her tail curling up so that it was over her paws. "Why don't you want me helping you? And why shouldn't I? I could catch you food or bring you some water."

Blackberry hissed a warning when she heard the scrapping sound of the cat moving closer. Her beak snapped again with warning, although even the sound of it, the thought that she would actually snap it closed on flesh, on blood, the saltiness, the tastiness spilling down her throat, thick dark warm blood...it was revolting.

She was annoying, though, and Blackberry knew the best way to deal with annoyances and that was to beat the shit out of them. It's what she had done up until this point and it usually worked to get them away from her. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She couldn't...she wouldn't...not after that, not after Elderberry...and Yewberry...Huckleberry...Cloudberry...

She shook her head as her mind threatened to throw her off into the past again and she focused once again on Wilder, even though she couldn't see her very well. "I don't deserve help is why. And I don't want it. I don't want food or water. I just want to die." She hissed out her last words and stared defiantly at the cat's pink eyes, which was the only thing she could see beyond a complete void of black.

Wilder was actually quite surprised by Blackberry's words. Why would she want to die? Didn't everyone want to live? Didn't everyone strive to live their best lives? What had happened that had brought this goose to such a state as this? Wilder wanted to ask so bad, it burned in her chest, but for once she knew that this wasn't the time to jump to hasty questions. She needed to do this right or Blackberry would push her away and answer nothing else.

She blinked slowly, trying to decide what to say. "Whatever you've done," she said, slowly, thinking each word out carefully, "that doesn't mean you don't deserve life or help. There's always time, always another chance to be better. Besides, wouldn't people miss you if you died?" She hadn't quite meant to say the last part but it slipped out anyways and Wilder worried for a moment if she had said the wrong thing.

She just didn't shut up. She just wouldn't stop trying. What the hell did this kitten know anyways? From the looks of her she was just a baby! Not even close to half her size. Dumb kids sticking their noses where they don't belong! Were her children ever that nosy? She didn't really notice - after all, back then, she had been much more willing to share.

She brushed off most of Wilder's words with indifference. She didn't know anything. She had murdered and maimed and had single handily caused the destruction of her family that she loved so much. She had been the reason that her son had died, that Blueberry was gone, that they were now scattered in the wind. Yes, she deserved death. She deserved a slow, painful, lonely death for everything she had done.

But what Wilder had not meant to say, it caused that anger, that rage to return in all it's fury. Not towards the cat but towards herself. Would anyone miss her if she died? No. Nobody would miss her. In fact, everyone would probably be better if she died! The hissing sound that came from her beak quickly distorted into words that spilled like water. "I don't deserve it! I deserve nothing but pain! Would anybody miss me if I'm dead? That's the stupidest question I've ever heard you idiot! Do you know how many people want me dead? Who have hunted me down like prey? Who have shown no mercy to me, Blackberry, the Terror of the Caves. Ha! The world would be a better place without me in it!" She snapped her beak again and looked away. She couldn't stand to look into those pink eyes anymore.