Jade Fern Grove hauntings

he had always been so clever.

astara stopped as merrick wheeled about. he was right, too, as he stood atop that mossy escarpment. astara was not with him; she was very much in her own world, fretting and seething as a tangle of thoughts whispered in paranoid frenzy about her.

her gaze seemed to clear as she looked upon him fully, absorbing the keen burn of his single gaze.

it was best she did not know -- and how stupid she was to only suspect women. all the same, astara had never scented a woman's presence on his pelt, and had always thought very little of the others.

even now it did not occur to the blackbird her rook swam in both ponds. she could banish those ugly thoughts of jealousy and insecurity for a time, but they would come back eventually. now, not even a romp in the woods with her bear was free from such needling thoughts, which prickled her like thorns the longer she weighed upon them.

astara canted her head and stepped forward, waiting -- for what, she knew not.