Haunted Wood you will be my salvation

we can’t risk you there.

famine laughed, or snorted, at the idea of someone caring. both of his parents were gone; he’d never met his late sire, and his dam escaped motherhood before her children could speak her name. his siblings were all disappeared, none of them stopping to even give a heads-up, and now his adoptive family, the nightwalkers, were dwindling, too.

they could risk him there; he had nothing to lose and he was willing to go, but that still wasn’t good enough? what benefits could come from refusing enlistment in a time of war? famine was young, and he knew that, but he was willing to do anything to keep his family safe, dying included.

santiago wouldn’t understand, though. he couldn’t understand the way famine felt, that unique betrayal which had been brewing in the back of his mind since infancy. 

no one wanted him. 
he was expendable.

these words weren’t spoken, but shown with the wrinkling of brow. multiple times he opened his mouth to speak, instead releasing mucus and tears rather than sound. they were going to leave him, everyone, and famine would be alone again. 

well, better to get a head start; he looked once more at santiago, then turned away to walk back to eirwyn’s once whelping den.