Wapun Meadow learning that i’m deserving of love and the peaceful heart

a scream rose high and thin in merrick's conscience.
how dare she address him with such maternal affection? how dare she say his name, look upon him
look — merrick gazed into the worried stare of the woman who had given him breath, and saw there, finally, recognition. it was something that nunataq had fled; this coiled thing that plagued each step, each dream, each waking hour.
she had created the serpent-scales in her womb —!
indra had created him —!
"i'm just relieved to see you," merrick answered, blinking to dispel the tension of her loving words, though the sound of them clung to his eardrums and dredged up a thick sense of regret
why had she not treated him so before?
"this is my companion. she's been with me a while, mother," the boy murmured, sidling aside so that astara might show herself. 
she has made me whole, spoke his stare beneath the layers of false warmth he had bundled atop its icy veneer.