Broken Boulder if not for my shoulders

Her shoulders sank inch by inch as he spoke, deflating in understanding. She couldn't help; he was right. She could see it in his eyes. The kind of battle he was fighting within himself was one he would have to tackle alone. She could stand on the sidelines as a cheerleader, a shoulder to cry on, moral support--but his issues were solvable only by himself.

"I understand," Lily gave in, nodding slowly. She took a deep breath and let it out through her nostrils, holding his gaze unflinchingly. "If you decide you want to talk about it, I'm here. Otherwise. . .I'll leave you be."

With another stilted dip of her head, the Consultant turned and began to pad away, tail almost between her legs. She suddenly felt she had done her role at the Sanctuary a disservice; a better mediator would have been able to draw out the trauma from Alarian, work on healing it. Instead, she'd almost made things worse.

The dark-furred girl slipped into the shadows between Broken Boulder and curled up inside her den, feeling inexplicably exhausted.