Hushed Willows shakespeare in the park

There was no telling what would happen now. She perceived the events of days ago in fragments, convincing herself on what went down, and how, and in what order, and that she was always in the right. As far as Tavi was concerned, her son had been in mortal danger — whatever events transpired after that thought hit her mind, they were justified. But she worried still, and would keep worrying, until the fallout settled around her. Tavi had thought the pack party had unified them; now, following her run-in with Harlyn and the chaos of those emotional moments, she was far from certain. She had hidden herself away with Tambourine for a few days without warning to anyone, and upon surfacing she was... Different.

Maybe the intensity of her emotions had changed her.

Maybe there was something deeply rooted and broken, but Octavia would never really know.

She slipped between the willows with her mind on finding something to eat, because truth be told, she'd forgotten about feeding herself during the past few days of forced hibernation. Her stomach growled with more intensity now than it had during the heart of the famine, but her mind had been upon Tambourine. All that mattered was her son. She would keep him safe, and fed, and alive, even if she had to feed him pieces of herself to make that happen.

Although it had not come to that, not yet anyway.

She had led Tambourine back to the Crook and given him permission to stay there, mindful of the others, and did not look anyone in the eye; like a single mother leaving their child at a daycare they cannot afford. Then, ducking away from the gathering place with a strange sense of detachment, she set out again to find something edible. That was when the scent of blood and the musk of a lagomorph caught in her nose. Octavia deviated abruptly and, finding Stark at the end of her hunt, was briefly stunned upon seeing him.