Overture Downs You should go and love yourself*

She should perhaps be more withdrawn from Luke, but he's always been a friend with whom she feels no reluctance. Even when he crossed over the fledgling borders of the maplewood, she felt no need to reprimand him. She remembers Reek's reaction to him and almost falters, but senses something has changed about Luke and thinks better of pulling away. Besides, the gentle pull of his teeth through her fur feels nice, and she returns the favour by combing the errant short hairs crowning his head.

His voice breaks her out of this friendly contact, though, and now she pulls just her head back to glance over his features. Something different, but she can't place it. Perhaps a slight pinch to his usual carefree expression, or perhaps something in the depths of his eyes, makes her ask him, "what's wrong?" He's never been one for emotional pain but it seems evident now, even to one as poor with perception as Saena could be. The exact cause of his tone she cannot decipher, but she knows there's something off. The worst she ever saw him was when he collapsed on her in the maplewood and expressed his worry, and this seems somehow worse. Quieter, but more deadly.