Broken Boulder "Did I haunt you, like a ghost?"

The guilt grew stronger with every second that ticked by like a clock, as if the moments they spent together were timed and he was limited in the things he could say, the things he could do. It shouldn't feel like that. That night, she had fled before another word could escape his jaws - he had wanted to say... he had wanted to say... stay. But she had been gone in a flash, a ghost melting into the darkness. He'd been left to wallow in the silence, mind floating adrift as the mixed waves of emotion washed over his thoughts - he'd been confused. He supposed, back then, he'd only been a lost boy. An outcast, fleeing from his home in search of something that he needed. The missing piece, the key to his story. Perhaps he had thought maybe she was that key. But she'd gone.

Truthfully, he hadn't stopped thinking about her. For many days after that encounter he had worried, he had worried some more... he hadn't been able to get the snow-coated girl out of his head, out of his heart. Perhaps when Semira had come along, had comforted him in his confused sorrow, she'd taken away some of the hurt and replaced it with joy. But now, looking at Liri, he could see that she had not found a saviour to take away the pain.

He did not pretend to know what she had suffered, the hardships she had endured. There was no doubting she'd had it far worse than Horosk could ever imagine, but the look she gave him. It made him break inside. Perhaps he deserved to feel what she had, perhaps it was only right that he experienced a look into the horros she had seen, for maybe if he'd been brave enough to follow her on that night he might have been able to suffer it with Liri. So she wouldn't have been alone. 

The storyteller casted his gaze downward even as she spoke, lavender gaze falling to the floor. His paws drew him slowly forward, carefully as though he were treading on a thread. "I'm sorry," the agouti man whispered, emotion pooling into his voice as though he were apologising for all his wrongs, all the things he could have done but didn't. Whatever had happened, Liri did not deserve what had befallen her. He didn't know how... he didn't know if it was possible, but he only wanted to make it up to her.

He only wanted her to be happy.