Rising Sun Valley maunon

for glaukos, other tags for ref!

"there's another herd moving out of the cuesta. i want to see where they go," she'd told @Druid and @Fiona, asking @Anselm to remain close to the den for a bit.
she would not be waylaid, and if asked, would be vague. only @Etienne knew she was running for a day to keep herself from running away, and even the poor healer didn't know where she was going.
beneath a sheet of gray rain, heda returned to the last place she had found @Glaukos, shivering in the deluge as she only prayed he would find her. too dangerous to call, to alert the valley who seemed to be turning against him.

Time passed as he worked within Bearclaw, but inevitably his thoughts would return to Rivenwood and the people there. Glaukos did not think of the children except to consider what might return him to Druid's good graces, if that was even remotely possible.

Drawn from the valley to scout the area for any danger, or any herd activity to report back to Ameline and Ancelin, he was surprised to find a familiar shape pacing beneath the rain.

Heda. Glaukos called to her — halting where he stood, as he had learned by now he was not welcome among those of Rivenwood; he recalled how tense his last visit had been, how fearful everyone was.

His head turned as he looked for signs of anyone else, then rested upon the woman. What are you doing out here?

as the massive shape of the bearman took form, heda bit her lip. she still didn't fear glaukos, not even after all that he'd done. or the things that had been claimed outside rivenwood. but this was still a hard conversation to have.
she closed the space between them, heart racing as she glanced up at him out of a rainwet face. "others are looking for you, at the creek. something about a ... girl." she watched him.
"druid — she's told them where you are, I think." heda swallowed. she didn't expect to see any emotion crossing glaukos' stoic face, but this had to feel some sort of way.
she knew her sister had been rightfully freaked out by the reappearance of a man with whom she'd traded blows. "you need to leave, glaukos. for you. leave the valley," she heard herself say, heard herself plead.

Heda approached him; she was never malicious before, and yet he tensed, preparing for an attack should she be fool enough to try; but it was not a physical assault that was levied against him, only a verbal one. A warning, or a trick.

His face became a frown, darkened further by the rain. What girl? As Glaukos considered what was said, he remembered the girl and her father, and the mud. Beyond that the minutae of the fight had fallen away from him.

Is this because I stopped by?

And there was Druid in the mix. Would she lie to keep her children safe? As he was slowly learning, any decent mother would go to great and terrible lengths to protect their own.

The frown upon his face loosened and briefly, Glaukos looked almost sad. She thinks I would hurt them. All I have ever done is protect Rivenwood.

"glaukos, she's missing teeth and she came back all banged up." the sorrow that eclipsed his solemnity for a moment ate at her heart, chewing, swallowing. "yes. she thinks if you can hurt her, you can hurt them. and i-i know it wasn't one-sided. i know," she promised, feeling strangely as if she might cry herself. "so seeing you again, i think, i — it was just over for her."
he spoke. "you can't protect us if you're dead." the words leapt flatly out of her mouth before she stop them; heda shut her eyes hard and drew a long breath. "i'm here because i never wanted you to leave. but now that it's clear you and druid can't work things out, i — the kids, glaukos. you're still their father. nothing should h-happen to you because of ... because of you and her."
thunder rumbled, miles away. she bit the inside of her cheek and waited, trying not to beg him to leave, to go now.

When she reminded him, he did not stand taller like he might have weeks ago, so convinced at the time he was right and angry enough to refuse all other option; now he merely existed there, tense and sagging to the rain.

For a long handful of minutes he was silent. The only sound around them being the gray haze of bad weather, as if Heda had carried a storm upon her back as she had left Rivenwood.

Then he cleared his throat, timed oddly with a rumble of thunder.

I have to leave. He looked at Heda but he didn't really see her, he was looking beyond her, unfocused. I'm the danger, aren't I? That's really why you're here. You're saving Rivenwood from... me.

Whatever else she had said might have been the truth too, but Glaukos could not see how saving him was worth anything to Heda; she was looking out for her children, her sister, her home. The man could not fault her for that.

If he had been a better soldier, none of this would be happening.

I'll go. I don't know where, but...

"you're a danger to yourself," heda whispered weakly, unable to untangle the clasping feelings within herself when it came to glaukos. "if i wanted to save rivenwood, i wouldn't have come. then you'd be dead, and whatever threat druid thinks you are — you wouldn't be any longer." she felt the pain in him, felt the sting of the accusation that she'd come for herself.
"you were kind to me." the golden eyes blinked rapidly, face upturned against the rain. kinder than he had realized. "and you took care of us. i won't forget it."
repayment for that?
or repayment for her earlier deception?
"go south." john had gone north, looking for her boys. better glaukos never met another one of rivenwood if he could.

Would it be best to leave immediately?

Heda did not insist on that, but she had sought him out with such focus, Glaukos had to think the threat that came looking for him was not far.

You were kind to me, I won't forget it.
His stoicism brings a taut expression to his face but he holds his tongue—it would be better if you did.

What would he tell those living within Bearclaw? Staying there would potentially bring this threat, whatever it was, to the doorstep of another couple with children on the way; could he justify that?

Glaukos mind was a blur.

He knew he had to leave, promptly. Heda said south. Marching orders. One last look at Heda, seeing her plainly now, this frightened, sad woman clinging to something like hope.

Take care of them. And he was lunging away through the rain, moving towards Bearclaw—but he would not go to the valley. His path would wind through the wilderness towards the mountains and then drop to the south, as she had said.

"i will," but glaukos was already turning away, moving with such a speed that he did not seem a wolf at all between the flashes of lightning, but a stormcloud of his own etching across the valley.
when the next clap of thunder cleaved her hearing, heda felt the hotness of grief stark against the cold rain upon her face. hope.
she could not change what she had done, but this, this — she had done something. 
had god been in this? heda wondered, slipping once on slick grass before she found a thin path for home. what she had done had been a betrayal, not only of druid but of rivenwood, of the allies her sister had found, of perhaps even the children themselves if she was wrong about glaukos. but it was because she believed fervently that she was not wrong that she felt right in this.
"i will," heda said once more to a lightless sky.