Hushed Willows what even is a good thread title

Since you're on your tech vacation and Ephraim has left Elysium, I'm gonna fade this one out! Hope that's cool.

Lily understood. That alone lifted a heavy weight off Ephraim's chest. He never expected that someone would actually understand what he was going through; Vercingetorix certainly hadn't, and Blixen hadn't even tried. The only other wolf he thought might have an idea was Antumbra, and the endless sea had swallowed her, so he would never know. But just hearing small wonder made his body feel lighter, his eyes a little less sunken.

I'm pretty sure they do, said Ephraim. H— my pack leader told me they left me behind in the battle. Antumbra had made it sound like a good thing, like Caiaphas and her brood were unworthy of him, and maybe she was right about that. Another time, he might have believed it. Now all it made him feel was the opposite. What worth did he have if even his blood left him behind?

She asked if it was on the coast and panic swept through his breath, forcing him to quickly answer, no. Then, because that was about as suspicious as suspicious could get, he amended, close to there. And then, with Lily's gentle coaxing, Ephraim began to speak of the nightmares that tugged him in two directions; of the voices that jeered at him when sleep deprivation became too heavy for him to handle; of the sense of being lost on an errant wave, not knowing who he was or where to go next. And slowly, through discussion, he began to feel a little better.