Bearclaw Valley a seminar about whether or not deer feel pain or are just sad

things were happening too fast for val to get a sensible account of them; already, indra was a red blur in his vision. thank god, he breathed, recoiling as stryx barreled down the passage way and positioned herself between him and arielle.

val's whirling thoughts slowed as horror crept to his senses. for a brief second he was reminded of how he and stryx had faced the one-eyed demoness at rivenwood together -- but as he looked upon stryx's fixed gaze, he understood.

he was not meant to stand alongside her today.

val's heart broke to witness such ugly truth. thank you, val mouthed to the healer. in his peripherals he saw arielle's form, whose shadow assumed the hideous hump of a bear as it approached them. never before had he looked upon arielle in such fear.

and then he did what he had done his entire life and should have never stopped doing: val turned on his heels and bolted after the girl.