Jade Fern Grove his heart was trapped in a cage

he echoes her greeting and makes it plain that she ought to go ahead. she accepts this easily, beelineing to the bank and drinking deeply. she can taste only sharp relief until the cold becomes apparrent and she is forced to slow her pace. a single aud is pricked towards the male, though she's made comfortable enough by the fact that she's certainly larger than he. still, he radiates a kind of toughness that she most definiately can't match - that point is made when her focus shifts too far from the task at hand and she stumbles forward, catching herself only just in time to avoid an embarrassing fall. 

he smells like something she can't place, something sharp that makes her think she could taste it if she tried. she shakes the thought and pretends to be fully engaged in the task at hand, and then he speaks. her chees grow hot and not because of her mild fever; hotter still when she realizes that it must be the smell that's alerted him to the state of it. "ok," she answers. then, slightly defensively, she adds, "I can't feel it. or reach it." she wants to explain away its horrible state, and her words are true - whatever's left of her tail is bent and twisted, and with her bum leg and chest the burns when she attempts to fold herself in order to reach, maintence of the limb has been minimal.