Fox's Glade [m] glued back together again

as merrit mulled thoughts of his family and the ghost of his mother, yakone too thought of the woman who had given her life. she wondered if reigi had felt this, once - before komodo, before her children existed. she wondered what she would think of the man yakone had found.

she didn't even know his name.

she reached out to nose his cheek lightly, wondering if he had already realized that she would forever be silent. he was beautiful, her fated stranger, but his eyes... the longer she looked, the more she saw it. a haunted aspect, a permanent sorrow that had made its home in his gaze. it was painfully familiar to yakone. her mother once bore that same wounded countenance. and just as she had then, yakone now felt that she would do anything to chase the shadows from his eyes and replace it with light.