Stone Circle maybe it wasn't our fault

valette comes onto the scene quickly enough, easing cyron of the anxiety that had begun to eat at him as he considered calling for her. he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself and the altercation he'd just had and he worried that if he called one or both of his parents might come running. her woof of greeting catches his ears, which cup forth, alert atop his skull as he looks to her. he lowers his eyes to the snow covered ground beneath their paws and lowers himself into complete submission to her, recognizing that she is the highest of high ranks and that he is the lowest of lows. it was always better to be safe then to be sorry, he's learned. she greets him by name and as he draws in a breath to answer her, it's gets caught in his throat, briefly suffocating him. he pushes it out forcefully and takes a small gasp of breath as the anxiety settles after it's brief and abrupt flare-up. evidently, this was going to be much more complicated than he'd originally thought. his mouth is as suddenly dry as a desert and his tongue feels like heavy sandpaper as it draws across his injured jowls. he doesn't know how to answer her, how to properly address her as to not earn her ire and so he gives a small dip of his head in apology and chooses not to respond to her question on how he's doing because the answer is plain: not well. sure, he is filling out, he can keep food down a bit better and his wound is healing but psychologically? that is a whole different war.

"i had a ...situation with a man on the borders," he admits suddenly, apologetically. "i-i was not sure how to handle him. he smelled faintly like blackfeather woods and i-i panicked. i told him to get lost and he assured me that he wasn't from blackfeather woods, that he smelled faintly like them because he was pissing on their borders." his reasoning doesn't matter much to cyron. it was foolish — even the callow and tormented saefyn could see it plain as day. "he explained that they had caused him to lose everything and that was why he was doing what he did. i was angry because i didn't want him to lead them back here but he swore that he covered his tracks." but cyron does not take the man's word at face value. too much has happened to him to be able to trust many. he leaves out the part of how degraded the man had made him feel by more or less calling him a coward — that was a private demon now and not something he felt valette should concern herself over.

"i just wanted you to know, in case —" but he cuts himself off sharply. he cannot make himself say it. but he suspects she will be able to follow his train of thought readily enough: in case he leads blackfeather woods here.