Emberwood The kids aren't all right.

Small PP, hope it is okay to include Tuathal! If not I can edit him out, no worries. Let me know.

Blood and mud soaked her paws, streaked up along her ankles like war paint, and her face was tinged with red where Ibis had been trying so desperately to make the situation right. Her eyes were half-lidded and unfocused, but she had @Tuathal alongside her body for support. It was almost like having her brother back — and on more than one occasion when the older man asked her for directions to her home, she mistakenly murmured something about the Willows, the Hollow, taking them on a meandering path south in the long run. Whenever Ibis composed herself she would have no memory of the trip from the cache to the Emberwood; nor should she really, it was a blur of trees and trauma.

When they passed over the border together she did finally stop. She stared grimly at the sigil carved in one of the white-barked trees, thinking it was pretty, but nothing deeper. She was still shaking despite the warmth of the man's coat, and refused to budge from his side. Truthfully she could not get the image of the dead body out of her mind — every blink was a shock to her system, and the only comfort so far came in the form of the rogue man.