Larksong Grotto christine

she opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling of the grotto as reek spoke soothingly, his presence too close but warm all the same, and nodded against the ground. the tension began to ebb slowly from her muscles, for he did not touch her, merely looked as she suspected any female healer might. the smell of the fish traveled to her but she did not reach for it, not yet. "s-six," she mustered in answer to his question. six days. 

she heard her son begin to stir -- he whimpered in his sleep, and she knew he searched for her. yet his murmurings were contented for now; she had stiffened at the sound but relaxed again. she could not bear to look at reek, not when he was so near to her, not when this meeting was so necessarily intimate.