Stone Circle and still standing

newt, having not seen his near entirely camouflaged sister, is startled when she comes bounding towards him, grip tightening upon the duck corpse causing the thin, hollow bones in the wings to crack beneath the unintended pressure. steps halted, he drops the duck — spitting out a stray feather or two — and focuses upon arlette as she tells him that she missed him. so his time spent in bearclaw valley ( much more frequent now than it ever had been ) hadn't gone as unnoticed as he liked. it simultaneously made him feel guilty and like a liar, for hadn't he promised he wouldn't sink into isolation again?

yet, here he was. slinking back from periodic isolation.

yeah — newt breathes. yeah, i'm ok. it feels like a lie as he says it, made worse by the way she blinks up at him. you don't have to worry about me. he mumbles offering a small bump of his muzzle against her's in reassurance. still, he feels uncertain as he looks at his values and the values easthollow was supposed to stand for and how they all feel turned on their head. the picture of family is fissured, the glass cracked, threatening to splinter.