Redsand Canyon You've only known the ones who leave at dawn

It is I who was not enough.

Crowfeather winced sharply, his fine features snapping toward Germanicus with a new burning fire in the depths of his honey warm gaze.

You were enough. You were enough from the first day. To me, you were… the only one who did not keep me to use me.

Germanicus wanted him to rest and eat. He wanted Crowfeather to see their doctor. The young seer already knew that he could not doctor his own leg, but he had lost a great deal of care for what his future held. Even after hearing it from the stranger on the borders of Akashingo, even after trudging through the wilderness to the edge of the canyon outpost, even after his heart had told him otherwise… Crowfeather had still believed there was a chance. Somehow, if he could reach Germanicus, someway if he could muster the courage to spill his heart –

If I do not have to see your wife, I will stay to allow your medicine wolf to look at my- at my ankle.

The young shadow had been severed from its body. Crowfeather thought that he might float away. What place did he have without the older man? Akashingo, where he was fearful and showered with far too much to be comfortable. He could never return to the mesa.

Crowfeather was on his own again. He knew that he would not last long. The hours he’d spent to catch a few fish had been brutal. His ankle was raw and marred beyond much saving. All that progress…

The dark figure began to plan. He would need a cave where he could see the stars, where they would grant him dreams. He could eat the sleeping herbs. It was unlikely he would know when he passed. The thought of death hung uncertainly over him. Where would he go after that?