Phoenix Maplewood got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home

@Skraeling

Reeling from the news he'd received at Easthollow's border, Shale dragged himself, wounded and despondent, back home. He no longer could muster even the energy to glare at Swiftcurrent Creek, for where there had once been rage now pooled sorrow.

Everything had gone so wrong, these past few days. He'd roped Pema into his emotional fuck pie, he'd potentially made enemies out of their new neighbors, and now this. He'd no idea how to even approach Grayday about any of it. Potentially Pema already had, and to think of her joyous face--perhaps a little irate, considering he'd left her in the lurch--bearing the news. . .

"Shit," Shale said, with feeling, entering the maplewood. The place where he'd reconnected with Murdock, all those moons ago. The emotions came up again, like bitter vomit, and he sat hunched beside a tree, head hanging solemnly. He would weep for his brother, under any other circumstances, but the last few days had left him depleted; he was too tired to weep.

So here he slouched, alone and abandoned, and somewhere his puppet master is screaming internally because goddamn it, Shale, why are you so sad all the time?