Heron Lake Plateau guiding light

Normally, Kite would’ve laughed at her brother’s obvious discomfort with her barrage of PDA, but she just wasn’t up to it right now. A tiny smile still danced upon her lips, but she was mercurial in her avoidance and shifted away from him before he could pelt her with mud. She remained quiet and subdued when Owen asked a rather important question, and somehow, Eljay’s answer managed to make her feel worse. She didn’t know what she wanted to learn, but she felt rather pessimistically that she was going to have to settle for something that she wasn’t all that excited about.

Worry for Owen made her cross; she was a “tough love” kind of girl, not nearly as nurturing as her mother. A frustrated little whine churned in her throat as she skittered closer to him and pressed her jittering body against his, bubbling and brewing like a fuzzy hot water bottle. “Stop shaking, Owen,” she commanded him nonsensically, but though her voice came out sulky, her tangerine eyes were full of concern and her brow was furrowed in a squinched up pout. She wasn’t going to cry — she wasn’t a baby! — but if he didn’t get warm and stop that shaking soon…

“Eljay,” she wheedled softly, looking up at him with round, worried eyes. “Did I break Owen? Is he gonna…is he gonna end up like me?”