Hushed Willows we used to be close but people can go from people you know to people you don’t

And with a few wroth words, they were pariahs.

Although Meerkat would never take for granted the care Sapphique showed @Swordfish, she wished with all her heart they could just leave now. Seemingly without compunction, it felt like some of the most important wolves in her life had turned their backs on her (them) and it was, in a word, devastating.

Knowing they would look after him in spite of everything, she tore herself from his side only because she needed to go somewhere, anywhere else. And though she wasn’t angry with @Njord, she didn’t want to go crying to him. There was enough on his shoulders without layering on guilt.

She had been through so much in her nearly three years, though Meerkat could not recall ever bawling so hard or so loudly, her belly clenching and unclenching with the sheer force of her misery as sobs tore out of her. Hidden by the tickling tendrils of a willow, she bent over double, clutching at her broken heart.