The Sentinels heart in hand

She pulled him to her embrace – her words stirring a gentle flick of his ear as his eyes slid shut. It was not that he blocked out the world, but merely kept himself to the dark so as to keep the trees from spinning above. Nausea welled in his stomach then, though there was nothing to bring up – the trace of bones and ribs could be seen against the once proud wolf’s skin.
 
“I would not leave you,” he murmured gently – uncertain himself if he meant only that death would not take him, or that even in another life, he would not look after his family. She desired to learn the art of war, but he could do barely more than shake his head – was she a fighter? Such a gentle creature.. surely he could not undo that in the ways that Tartok had pressed upon him.
 
It was why he was home. He needed to be here.