Heron Lake Plateau shadow, my sweet shadow

Why am I still up omg

She closed her eyes, feeling a tear slide down her cheek. There were seven, she thought as she felt her heart crack. It was impossible to know if the trauma of Screech's attack and its subsequent wounds had caused those three little lights to go out, but she would nevertheless blame him for it. She would blame him for it for the rest of her life. She felt her mate's tender kisses on her head, and there was a sense of security in his touch that was a balm on her wounded spirit. His words registered in some part of her mind that understood how close he had come to realizing that awful truth, but strangely there was no sorrow. What she had seen was so sublimely wonderful, so free of all the pains and tribulations that plagued her here, that she felt a fleeting pang of regret at its slipping away.

But there are still four.

And that was reason enough to stay. She took a deep breath...then two...then three...and looked up into the face of her guardian angel. She saw the strain in his eyes, those beautiful chartreuse eyes, and noticed the way fear and worry had written lines into his face that hadn't been there before. She smiled weakly at him, tenderness in the curve of her lips and the warmth of her gaze, and gently reached out a paw to touch the side of his neck. "I'm not going anywhere," she told him, her voice barely more than a husky whisper. She wanted to tell him that it took more than a few bites and scratches to knock down a Redhawk, but she couldn't quite summon the energy to say so many words just yet.