Bramblepoint The Parting Glass

She flinched when he recoiled, pulling her paw back slightly in spite of what she wanted. No, that wasn’t right. What she wanted was for him to be comfortable. She wanted him to find some kind of peace lying there in a shroud of morning light and mist. She couldn’t imagine that her company would ease him, but she could not have let him make the journey alone even if he had outright refused. If anything, he could make a spontaneous recovery from the toxin, but require someone to take him to the water’s edge so that he wouldn’t live just to die of dehydration. It had been the driving force behind her intentions, but the longer she watched him, the quicker her hopes were sapped away. She simply wasn’t ready to admit it.

She bit the side of her cheek. "You’ll tell him yourself. The worst part is over," she tried to assure him. She could trick herself into believing that the worst part was over as long as she believed that suffering was worse than death. In truth, she had no idea what symptoms might befall him next. He had dragged a corpse from who knew where all the way to the caldera’s borders, and even at that point he had been coughing violently and weakening before their very eyes. After the fact, Sassafras had witnessed firsthand how gravely he struggled to drag the carcass all the way to Bramblepoint. She hadn’t even been able to help him with the burden.