Bearclaw Valley just have the strength to know you're wrong,

the distance closed between them, and a silence rose in foreboding tenacity about them. suddenly it was not stillness that enveloped the vale, but a crackling disquiet: as if in any moment the stare of the storm would splinter and all would be delved into ruin.

indra's eyes too carried a storm in them: a blast of mistrust tinted her mahogany gaze, and it frigidly lingered long after stigmata spoke. it was not his intention to be gone so long -- but that was the way of all letdowns, wasn't it? surely reek hadn't meant to fracture their family - surely saena hadn't meant to set the emotions of her children alight when she departed too -- and surely, stigmata had not meant to take advantage of her reluctant good nature, only to show her in the end that the world was full of selfish bastards, and selfish bastards only.

she sniffed derisively, childishly mimicking the snort he had uttered to her once. yet curiosity tempered her instinctive want to chase him out, and reluctantly she asked: "where did you go?"