Haunting Echo had been struggling through trying to find his pups. Stonerooted had come to the borders only a few times, to tell him that she was still searching. His only remaining pup that he knew of had gone with her. He should've fought harder to keep the pup. It was Stonerooted who had lost the other two. It was her fault for losing them instead of protecting them. It ate away at him every moment that he hadn't fought to protect the little she-pup that went with her mother.
Every time they saw one another, Stonerooted said she'd handle it. That she knew the one who took their pups. That he needn't involve his pack, but he was restless. Even if his Alpha didn't know about it, that didn't mean he would just sit still and wait for Stonerooted to return with more news of nothing. Was she even searching? Did she even care about what was taken from them? From him?
He was a Gatherer, but he'd found that he was going out further and further. He'd always bring something back to the pack; he wasn't going to start shirking his work. But now he wasn't just gathering materials for the pack. He was gathering information. He was gathering allies, if he could find them. Anyone who would be interested in telling him about the whereabouts of his missing pups.
Of course, when Big Bad mentioned the berserker, it had crossed his mind that maybe an assumed killer like this might be someone he could ask to go hunt down the wolf who had taken his pups. He went out searching for the large wolf during one of his gathering missions, but he didn't have any luck in finding them. Surely if this wolf was enough to concern the Alpha, they would surely be able to track down a pup-napper. So he went out to search. He went far beyond the pack lands, but those days such excursions were common for him. He seemed to go farther and farther each day. Yet he knew where his loyalty ultimately: he would not be seen as a deserter or traitor to the pack.
After traveling around far enough, he did get a whiff of the beast. However instead of finding the berserker, he just found some bones and splatters of blood here and there, nothing remarkable...at first. He couldn't immediately identify the bones that belonged once to a beast, but it certainly put things in better perspective. These weren't the bones of a small beast like a rabbit nor a deer. A shiver ran up his spine, but he was determined to gather them up and bring them back to the pack. He might not be able to identify the bones, but surely one of their Seers, Dead Reckoning, would be able to. And if these were wolf bones... Echo sighed.
I have pack mates that I can offer jobs to. He thought, shaking his pelt out and gathering the bones together to bring back to the pack. Ones that I can rely on far more than a murderous stranger. Maybe it was finally time to tell his Alpha what was troubling him... and send out a pack wide job in the process.
(WC: 543)