Seaside Moors Seeing spiders, I'm told they never lie

wc:219

The disappointing thing wasn't the thought that perhaps her mothers might go looking for Valravn without her...Though she did worry that one of them might come across the bear that had spooked Valravn away. What was the most disappointing to Chacal was the fact that they had to search at all- because he shouldn't have gone missing. Perhaps, she wondered, if she'd simply stuck closer to him, when Raleska had been leading them to a safe place...Maybe if she'd been right by his side, she could have curbed his silliness and kept him closer to the group. Maybe she could have herded him back toward the rest of them, and he might not have crossed paths with the bear. In her mind, this was as much her fault as it was anyone else's. What kind of a shadow was she, if she couldn't also reach out and direct her brother, like the shadow of a cardinal point?

So she moped, and didn't directly answer her mother when she spoke. Her downcast gaze fell somewhere around Rosalyn's ankles, which was where she was used to watching whenever she tok her place as someone's shadow. This was where she was best, like a little wooden duck on a string, trailing along behind a toddler- faithful and pretty, but otherwise quite inutile.