Sun Mote Copse Jabberjay

It had become clear to Eljay that love was unfair. He looked at the ground, feeling down in the dumps about what Wraen had said before, and he frowned thoughtfully as he tried to place everything that she said. But it was hard: he had always accepted everyone for who they were, even though it worried him that mom would go off on her adventures or it hurt him that Towhee would look at him with the sharp eagle eyes she had, knowing that she thought him pathetic and weak. But his children — they were not just wolves who had come into his life or who were there all along, such as his mother, Towhee or Wraen; they were wolves that he had created, and they were wolves that he should help raise and build up. That he should help find their place in this world. That he should keep safe.

And he felt he had felt at all of those things. Wraen said that Elfie didn't hate him; that he just wanted to be appreciated and that they needed to compromise. But it felt to Eljay as if that wasn't possible at all. It felt like they would never see eye to eye. Perhaps because so much of Elfie reminded him of Towhee in some ways; the way he would look at Eljay, seeing that pathetic loser that he saw reflected in Towhee's eyes, too.

Eljay looked away and frowned. I guess you're right about that, he said, deciding against speaking about the impossibility of the task. He knew it would only make her think of him negatively, because he should be more positive about things and he should want to try. But he was so tired, and he just didn't know where to search for the energy to try anymore. He was trying his best to hold everything together, but most days it felt as if that just wasn't enough.