The Sentinels shillelagh

her head ached. while she had awoken, she was far from truly repaired; there was an ugly wound upon her otherwise flawless visage that would soon fade to nothing, but perhaps starbuck would be scarred by the memory. her beauty was not altered for the bearclaws upon her cheek, but something about her had been altered. what it was, not even deirdre knew for certain.

when she rose from her days or weeks of slumber, she found herself without both larkspur and starbuck. the only thing she could remember with any clarity at all was the way the swipe of the bear-paw felt against her head, but not why she had been so far from home, not that she sought both larkspur and starbuck who had both gone.

the return of starbuck surprised her, truly. perhaps the relationship forged between starbuck and larkspur trumped the one deirdre desired to build between them all, and her heart had broken for the thought of this! but her darling starbuck had returned, and deirdre moved through the whispering trees silently. the throb between her temples permitted few thoughts at all as she approached.