The last day and a half had been stranger and stranger. Joe eased himself into the saddle, watching Caitlyn covertly and trying to figure out just how many masks she wore. Her actions had led them to this place, and yet she professed no knowledge at all of what they were supposed to be doing, or where they were going. She had lied to him in the past, that was true enough. But her tears on his shoulder had convinced him that it wasn't her fault.
More and more he was finding out that it never was her fault.
Disillusioned, he began to think again about his own quest. He had been seeking the answers to the hole within his soul, had found instead more questions. He had turned down his chance to ask those things that gnawed at him, and had tossed that aside as well.
It wasn't right.
Bear and Alyssa were talking. Bear touched his wife's cheek tenderly eliciting a smile and a laugh from her. Their closeness reminded him of his parents. And suddenly Joe couldn't think of anyplace he would rather be than his own home. His time for questing was over. There were no answers. It would be best to settle down in the smithy with his father, maybe think of courting one of the village girls. Others did it, why couldn't he?
Yet there was a restlessness within him that questioned this too. Was home and hearth what he wanted? Well, there was one way to find out. Especially as Bear and Alyssa both seemed upset at the direction this path was taking. If there was danger ahead did he want any part of it? He was no coward, his own quest had proven that. But did he wish to fight for HER, a girl who admittedly was a liar. He kept coming back to this because he valued truth so highly.
So he made the only decision he could, because his own set of values would have it no other way.
"I'm leaving."