Herbalists' Cache blue

There was something that was just too enchanting about Komodo. She had thought him at first to be a simple man of simple desires, for often their days before their departure for Meares Island had been spent border marking, napping, and cache filling.  They did not talk often (which was a relief to the mute woman), and when they did it was simple. It was only just before they began their trip to visit the Cortens that she had begun to realize the subtle but oh so real depth that the angakkuq contained.

His rituals intrigued her. She often stood alongside him and mimicked his actions and tried to pick up on the powerful feelings that emenated from him.  He was too deep for her to grasp; everything he did, it felt like she was just grazing the surface of his substance.  She was comforted by the constant steady drumbeat of his paws against the earth, always in the background.  She enjoyed rubbing her angled jaw against the soft brown thickness of his fur, she enjoyed preening it with her teeth.  At night she would shield herself from the cold by pushing her nose beneath one of his heavy forepaws and worming her way into his embrace, Yakone tucked in the curl of her mother's body.

One night during their return as she nestled into his dense and heavy-scented pelt, she felt something within herself that caused her to withdraw from the angakkuq completely and from that moment their budding relationship very suddenly split among an invisible fault line and shattered.  

Since their travels had begun the pair had been inexorably close, and now she treated him with the cold, standoffish indifference of a stranger.  Still, she encouraged her daughter to interact with the druid and never dissuaded the earthstalker from showering the young girl with affection.  Even more strange, she would slip away when she felt her absence would go unnoticed and imitated some of the queer things Komodo did.  But it was no longer just the man's rituals that intruiged her. It wasn't the way slurred way he talked, or the gentle roll of his shoulders when he walked.  It was him.

That alone was not enough to cause her to disentigrate — no, it was the bold thought that she might have attracted his molten gaze that caused her to push him away with such ferocity.  What confused her even more was that she did not understand why. Why? She was not as beautiful as the graceful inkstained sheepdog that occupied Wheeling Gull. She was not smart like Maegi.  She was not a good, kind woman.

And even still, if she did succumb to her desire — if the earthstalker even loved her (although that was thinking much farther ahead than they presently were) — would he run straight into the arms of another woman when the breeding season came, like Xan had?

It did not matter.  She would not let herself be used and manipulated like that again, even as good as the Angakkuq was to her.  She did not deserve, truly, how good he was to her.  Perhaps now that he had seen Xan and her children with his own eyes, he might understand.

The trio arrived on the bridge of Morningside late in the evening, but even as close as they were it seemed as if Yakone was becoming tired.  She was too difficult to carry now, as big as she had gotten; they'd have to settle down in the forest for the night.  She settled her baby down and got her to sleep, but that meant that it was just the mother and @Komodo... and she was not about to acknowledge him first.