Lion Head Mesa tenax

crowfeather drew away.

the shadow struggled with his words. and yet each one fell heavy upon germanicus.

at the mention of the word burden, he could not help the sharp shake of his head. by now he had come off the plinth. he stood a proper and helpless distance from the young healer. he watched the way that each sound was shaped by hurt.

for a long moment he did not speak. the admission of unrighteousness on both their parts was hard to ignore. it felt as though it truly were a confirmation of what he knew to be uncommon. forbidden, if even in a vague way.

"nothing about this has anything to do with a belief that you are a burden," the eagle said. "you have never been this to me. i have — grappled with my own feelings for you, crowfeather. perhaps since we departed the hinterlands."

had it been so long?

"i struggled to know if they were appropriate or warranted or even real. and it seems that in this time it has taken me to decide, you have been put into the middle of war and then maimed." 

there was another silence.

"who i am is something i am still discovering. the truth of the matter is that any life you lived with me would always be marked by conflict. it is who i am. i will seek it out." germanicus felt that the moments were slipping away between them. his own fear was beginning to yawn.