Overture Downs but if I keep going crazy like this

There was silence.

And in that silence, she stole a few steps closer to him.

The man’s eyes widened for a split second, surprised by her actions, before easing into an expression of relief; he did not move nearer to or away from her, remaining where he was instead and allowing her to creep as close as she felt comfortable getting. He couldn’t say for sure if he remained for himself or for her, wanting to ease her troubled mind as much as he wished to rinse himself of any lingering guilt. But all it took was one sentence for him to be thrown back into the past, the corners of his lips turning down into a frown whilst he shook his head. “No,” he stated, voice still firm despite his age. “You trespassed but they took things too far.” Sent away or killed, those should have been her options. Yet, instead, the wolves of the woods had taken and tortured her.

It was dishonourable—and yet, she seemed willing to move past it.

When asked about himself and the woods, he was surprised, to say the least. “Things have been well for me,” he answered, easing into the conversation. “Blackfeather dispersed, all of those there when you were kept from leaving now either dead or gone from these lands. I took over for a short period but we were too few in number and those lands were cursed long ago… haunted by so many, I am sure.” How many had died? Of their own and of others, wolves murdered in cold blood. “I do not know what became of those that remained afterward. I left them some time ago and joined my daughter’s pack up here.” Would that put her even more at ease, knowing that he was no longer a member of the pack that stole her away? It would not change the past, of course—but perhaps it could translate for her the changes he underwent.

“How have you been?” he asked in return, curious. “Where have you been at for all these years?” Perhaps that was too much to ask. “You do not have to answer if you do not want me to know.” He didn’t want to interrogate her, nor come off as if he was attempting to do so. They were on equal grounds now, after all. Neither of them young, neither of them trespassing.