Blackfeather Woods I felt your shadow on the way home.

Why did you leave me?

What could he say to her that would fix this? Even if he had a voice, how could he put it in to words? Make sense of the shadow in the sky that had chased him, taken him? The danger that he felt, the horror of being taken and of waking up somewhere strange, cold, devoid of anything natural, his brain fuzzy with the drugs—with something grabbing at him, pinching at him, lifting him, contorting his body while he had been semi-conscious but unable to exert control? The abduction had left him so addled that it had been blocked from his mind almost immediately, but it came to him now, in flashes. Waking up in a box that smelled like minerals, being unable to move for many hours—the beating of giant wings as the black creature lifted off again and left him stranded, in the middle of nowhere.

How could he explain this, or the sacrifice he made for the sake of the woods? Thinking that his lingering might endanger them all. Convinced of some sort of curse, this shadow, this wingless, soulless monster watching from the sky, eager to steal him away at a moments notice? He could barely make sense of it himself; but Mou had done all that he could for the safety of his family, for Maegi. His one eye was staring at her as she questioned him, staring as she looked upon the dirt, staring as she wept and staring as she ached in a way that he could never, ever for the life of him fathom.

He had run because he had been afraid—but willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of her.

But he could not tell her.

So, in silence, he flattened to the earth in a mournful puddle.