Fox's Glade Cause we both need it to forget this fear

Understanding dawned in her dark gaze. 

She knew quite a bit about betrayal. 

It hadn't occurred to her that her actions might seem cowardly - he was vastly larger than she and his ways were mysterious to her still. Just because he was calm and kind on the surface didn't mean he was incapable of lashing out. Liri had known patient men who were prone to fits of anger; it was only instinct to get out of harm's way. 

She could see that her flight had upset him - a notion that brings her unsteadily onto three paws. There no longer seemed to be any danger. There was only Sorin with his sad eyes and he needed her. 

The fae returned slowly to his side like a truant shadow. The healer settled on her pale haunches, freckled crown hung as her gaze roved over the ivory-patched forest floor. 

There were no apologies or reassurances, no words that could make him feel better. Liri leaned against him hesitantly, waiting to see if it bothered him before she settled fully against his broad side.

"I founded a pack on the other side of those mountains, " Liri broke the silence, at last, lifting her chin in the direction of the Sunspear range looming like dark sentinels against the night sky. "Just last summer. We lived there for several months. I led alongside Kavik..my mate."

Liri could not look at him. Her eyes remained on the distant peaks, her soft voice collected. 

"We had a few issues towards autumn - a conflict with our Beta, the loss of a few members, a bear attack, animals raiding our caches. But we didn't struggle - not unduly. We were happy."

I thought I would spend my life on that Plateau. My children would play amongst the pines and learn to hunt in the open field by the stream.  Ruenna's children would likely have been their playmates or maybe Elixir's. Someday it would have belonged to them, to all of the pack's children. 

"But my friend fell ill with greencough and after I treated her, I contracted the disease myself. For two months I wasted away while the pack fell apart. A group of coyotes raided the caches and my family fled. 

I was lost in the caves, delirious with fever." 

"When I was finally well enough to seek the members of my former pack out, I found they had scattered to the wind. After I crossed the mountains, I stumbled upon the borders of the Swiftcurrent Creek pack and smelled the scent of Kavik there."

Her lip twitched slightly in an attempt at a wry grin. "It was faint but I would have known it anywhere."

"I called for him, almost certain he wouldn't come. But he did."

Her shoulders curled the tiniest amount, as if bracing against a physical pain. 

"And he revealed that he had gotten another subordinate pregnant. She came into heat and he just happened to be there. He told me he would be staying to take care of her and the children."

She doesn't want to look at him. She knows Sorin will see the ocean of grief that threatens to drown her if she dares stop swimming.

Someday she may reach the shore, but it feels distant yet. If she can just keep kicking her feet, maybe someday the northron would get to experience dry land. 

In the end, her gaze lifts to his - soft but pained. They aren't so different. 

"This "she", she is your Kavik?" Liri asks softly, hoping it doesn't trigger him into another rage. She feels she can understand his reaction better, how the pain of such a thing can unhinge you.