Morningside Cuesta Surviving can be the worst kind of pain

[table width=85%][tr][td]So lost was she in the sea of grief and pain that Liri nearly failed to hear the woman's voice. 

My child, my baby...

The woman, cream coloured and haloed by the sun behind her, came into focus slowly. Liri rasped in response, struggling to roll over onto her back in submission. With a wheezy gasp of pain, she settled for collapsing onto her side and letting her head fall back to bare her throat. 

"I know what it looks like," the ice spirit croaked, voice thin and reedy from her weeks of silence. "It looks as if I am begging; begging you to give an injured woman safe harbor, to give a mother a home for her children, for life."

"But I am no slacker. I am loyal. I am a healer. I...I cannot run very well, nor hunt I suppose...but I still have legs, I can track game. I was fast enough to escape and smart enough that she will not find me. I can be of use," Liri whispered urgently to the woman, a beacon of hope. 

This was too much to say at once for her, exhausted as she was on top of everything else, and Liri slumped against the earth with a sigh as if it had taken everything in her to speak so much.[/table][/tr][/td]