Firefly Glen [PHE] ogonzaun

her condition did not improve. skaigona, too fatigued to hunt, still did not request help from those around her. 
it was only a matter of time before they were discovered, she decided, and at that time they could help ezra.
today she dragged herself to the nearest stream, slaking her thirst in the frigid water. it occupied her entire mind, her rawboned arms thrust into the gentle current.

He had stolen away from the great festivity to find solace in the quiet of the Glen. Here and there he found pockets that stirred with the shadows of home, yet today, he found each place taken by one wolf or another and though he wished for silence, he lingered at each, until eyes drifted outward and words began to reach for him.

They could not have him, not today, and he hurried away.

White noise bubbled from the riverbank. A stream still flowing with the spoils of fall. There would be others here, but the one he found seemed... different from the rest. Joy lines failed to mark her face. Something heavy took their place. 

Diego paused in his wander and settled down to watch her make her place within the stream.

he was a boy, a little boy. about the age of her own, but without anselm's muscular build, he seemed younger.
skaigona didn't recognize his scent and truthfully it didn't matter. too weak to hold herself up, she descended to chest-height in the cold water and concentrated on her breathing.
her mind cursed god. her thoughts damned herself. dulled golden eyes faded into a close as skaigona willed herself back to the island, just for a moment.

Grief filled the golden eyes that drifted a glance his way. He stiffened, ready to run, but no words met him.

She turned back and let the river wash her.

The boy canted his head this way then that, and his nostrils flared for signs of sickness, but he was met by river spray and wolf quite like the rest.

Certain he was safe from this, at least, he watched her with a quiet look. Then, paws met the stream. Cold water rippled around his legs and he sloshed through the rover towards her, mismatched eyes blinking in steady curiosity, heart touched with something he'd never felt when he'd seen sadness in the eyes of the highbloods at home.

It ached, in a bad way, and though something told him it was good to feel it, he wasn't sure he liked it.

a boy. a boy. she thought only of her own and wanted to weep.
"are you well?" skaigona asked instead, not able to avoid maternal instinct even as she found that it was painful to indulge.
the silent child belonged to someone, but she hadn't the energy for a mental sort through the assembled packs here, not when she had been lying low in its corner for a long while.