Shadewood maquktuq ⛈

<333

The air seemed thick with unspoken hurt, pouring from the wounds of both women - Gwen did not want to feel possessive over her mate, her husband, but she was simply afraid. Love was fragile, tender; the most wonderous experience, the most dreadful curse, as thin as paper, and so easily torn. She'd loved and lost before, and though on the outside it had hardened her shell, within, the ivoria was tenuous, terrified and uncertain.

She listened to the duck's story in silence, inwardly wincing at the weight of loss. To interrupt such a story could have caused further tearing of bonds, and she had no wish to be on bad terms with Kukutux. Her heart, in spirit, ran with the girl's, a quiet reaching out of understanding, of apologies for her heartbreak.

Only when words slowed to a halt did the Eruna finally speak again, leaning forward to brush her nose warmly against the other's pale shoulder, should it be permitted. "I am sorry you lost him," she uttered carefully, "I've lost a husband before, too." Two of them, in fact, and it killed her every day. "I know how it burns. This is why I... why i'm so attached to Cry. I don't want to lose him, like I lost the others."

"You are strong. I believe in you." She did - with a knowledge of the earth-shattering pain deaths and disappearances caused, she knew one had to maintain serious strength not in their physique, but in their hearts. Their wills.