Silvertip Mountain Did you find something?

Two small words, and the fur felt ripped from her body, and the branches from the trees, to leave her naked and exposed upon wide and barren ground. Her mouth remained parched, thoughts unnervingly quiet, and she was left only to turn a sidelong glance upon Sebastian and wait for his reaction.

His face distorted, and she tried to decipher what ran through his mind. But even with the bare display of his heart, she could only determine so much, and soon she found herself looking away to let her thoughts rest blank, reserved to listen to nothing but the kicking of her heart, until the rumble of his voice finally broke.

His words tumbled like rushwater, and a growing sense of anguish filled Andalusia, that he would think for a second he'd done wrong in worrying for his family, in being proud to share them with others and with her. "Sebastian - " she started, but fell silent. He had more to say, and she managed a small smile at his comfort.

Often, she'd told herself the same. That her life was well used in the healing of others, that though she had none of her own to look out for, she had many still to care for. But Andalusia bit her tongue against telling Sebastian his words didn't bring the comfort he hoped they would. For though she had many good things, they would never be quite the same as what she knew children would bring. The want for them went against all her logic - she had fewer worries, greater freedom. She could where she wanted and do as she pleased, without worrying about mouths to feed or tempers to quell. But even after watching Sebastian - and so many others - struggle through the ups and downs of parenthood, her heart only filled with greater longing for even the chance to experience that. How she would still give up her freedom, her wants, her everything to have that.

"Sebastian," she repeated, and crossed the small gap between them to bury his face against his neck. She held there for a long moment - for his comfort, she told herself - but at the touch, she reconized she needed the contact perhaps just as much. She still pressed against him, but angled her mouth away from his fur to speak. "You did nothing wrong." The complete opposite, for while times had been painful, there'd been a joy in knowing the life that had come from a wolf she'd saved, life that otherwise never would have been. "And thank you."