Mount Apikuni I went through hell to get to high water

He tries to imagine that it's Alessia beneath his touch. That she's alive and warm and with him, and she'll wake up any moment, blinking sleepy sanguine eyes at him. She'll smile, and tell him she loves him; he can almost hear the words, almost, like the faintest hint of a scent on the breeze. He needs to hear them, more than he even needs to breathe.
But the voice that breaks the silence is Taikon's, and Alessia is dead and gone, and the woman he's grooming is a stranger who'd sooner see him dead than inconvenience herself for his sake. He looks up at him slowly, silently, eyes raw and hollow and full of bright red hurt like fresh blood from a wound. The emotion vanishes from them after a few moments, and leaves an icy void in its wake. It was a mountain lion. The one that attacked me, He answers, tone sullen and reluctant, making it clear that he doesn't want to talk. He returns to his task, to his play-pretend, trying to ignore Taikon's presence.