When Arric wasn’t at the cove, Eshe quickly followed after him. She was still concerned about him—despite the leaps and bounds he’s made in his recovery—and didn’t want him to wander too far.

”Hey!” she barked once she spotted him in the distance. ”What do you think you’re doing?” Although there was a playfulness to her voice, she was mostly serious. She rushed to his side and looked up at him. ”The only place I want you to go is to get some food—we need to fatten you up.”

He had a good point—his bed did reek.

”Yeah, sorry about that,” she apologized, frowning. Between healing him and @Mae, keeping an eye and spending time with @Nicodem, and collecting herbs, there were quite a few things that had fallen through the cracks. She was exhausted, but knew that she could rest when everything calmed down.

”Let me help you with that,” it was the least she could do. ”I’ll bring you some more mint, too. I haven’t been able to smell it for a few days and keep forgetting to bring it.” She sighed and flashed him an apologetic look.

”I also want to start you on some juniper berries—for your stomach. The watermint I’ve been giving you doesn’t seem to be working as well as I want it to. I need to help you get more food on your stomach.”

”Phew!” she exhaled dramatically, wiping her brow for comedic affect. ”Thank for letting me off the hook. I can go and get you new bedding while you do that.”

She hesitated when he asked about his hunger returning, and he lips drew a straight line. ”It should, but I’m concerned that you’re losing too much weight. You need to eat to build up your strength.” But, ultimately, this was his decision to make. ”We can hold off, too—I’m just worried about you.” She grew quiet and she looked up to him tired, rounded eyes.

Regarding the question about @Akavir, she snorted. ”Yeah, we’ll see about that.” With no time to herself, she hadn’t been able to see him much. She had no idea where they stood, and, frankly, she was not in the right headspace to think about any of that.

”You’re too kind,” she said, dropping into a curtesy. ”I could’ve broken a nail sifting through it!”

She reclined as she watched him clear out the bedding, keeping a close eye on his movements. He was stronger, that was obvious, but he still had a ways to go.

When he remarked on her subscription, she breathed a sigh of relief. ”Its worth a shot, but I’ll take you off it immediately if you don’t like how it makes you feel. You’ll take it right before bed, and my thought is that you’ll digest it overnight and wake up hungry.”

She felt the weight of her of her exhaustion crash upon her as she began to overthink what she’d said about @Akavir . ”I mean, I want that more than anything,” she said as tears began to wet her eyes. ”I just … don’t want to get my hopes up. We’ve been so busy, and I’ve been impossible to be around. I try and explain that I’m exhausted, and that I’m not usually this … crazy … but I’m starting to wonder if he thinks I’m not worth the stress—

—and that I’m too much for him.”

She shook her head. ”You shouldn’t. The herb is used to take off the edge of nausea so you can feel your hunger cues.” She smirked then, mirth dancing in her gaze. ”We can’t have you being as big as Frank the giant—I don’t think our caches could support that.”

She laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes as he explained his relationship with @Akavir, and what possibly could be going through the alpha’s mind.

”You’re right,” as always, ”I’ve just … never been the most sure of myself, and I feel like everything I do wrong—even the tiniest slip up—scares everybody away from me.” That she always trying to achieve the unattainable goal of being perfect.

He validated her feelings in a way that made her feel like he was being sincere—that meant the world to her.



She smiled, expression brimming with emotion as she self consciously tucked a tuft of fur behind her ear.

”You know, you should be charging me at this point for all this therapy,” she joked. ”I’m pretty deep in debt, right?”

Eshe resisted acting on her impulsive thought—she had to allow herself believe that she did make Akavir happy. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders and grinned. ”Seems fair.”

Now, with that distraction out of the way, they could focus on the bedding.

”Do you want to stick with the grass or mix it up? I can get some moss or fur to make it softer, if you stick with the usual.”

Eshe considered the neighboring territories and their resources. Eventually, she decided: I can go upstream and see if any beavers have left any wood chips behind. I can mix that with some moss and sand and that should be nice and soft.” If it worked as well as she thought it would, she’d have to run the idea by @Akavir to see if he’d want to try it.

”I could use your help,” she added, watching him close to gauge his reaction. ”But only as long as you promise not to overwork yourself.”

She trusted him. ”Alright,” she agreed, sending his excitement, ”Lets go!”

She motioned for him to follow as she set off, steering them north. ”You know that beaver dam north of here? That’s where we’re going to look. We can look and see if there’s any moss growing around there, too. If not, I know somewhere else we can find it.” she walked slowly, not wanting to push him right out the gate.