Emberwood twisted shadow knots around my wrists

A small shadow emerged and for the briefest of moments, K felt nothing more than a swell of warmth and relief fill his chest. The threat of a smile tugged at the edges of his frown, but the moment they started to pull he met her eyes. Bhediya's head shake, as harmless as it probably was meant to be, was more than enough to send his tail down into a tuck. Ears flickered and then stayed back, the boy wanted to break the eye contact. But he wouldn't.

"Bhediya..." The weight from a heavy conscience thick upon his tongue, "I... I ain't really got a good 'nough answer fr'that." His wanderings at first had been with a keen objective, to find someone for a certain other someone. It had been folly for the southerner to attempt to navigate after a target without knowing the region well enough. At that point, it'd simply been his pride that'd damned him. "Went lookin' for someone, but I don' know this place like y'all do. A'that point, I was jus'..." This time he did break his gaze, a tense sigh under his breath, "Didn' wanna be a failure..." to her...

He'd interrupt his own internal thoughts with a rough roll of his shoulders, as though doing so much physically remove this discomfort that cloaked him. "So yeah, ain't no good reason. But I don't wanna lose," Bright eyes flickered back, "any of y'all." Was it the fact Kukulkan had made no other significant connections in his time up north? Could his feeling of connection here simply be skewed, a need for community stitched into these wolves? No.

There was something here.
Something that held him close.

"Are... are ya okay?" Who knew what things could have happened while he had been away? How much had his absence risked? This place was a new home for him, a family away from family. They were his responsibility as much as any.

@Bhediya