Blacktail Deer Plateau Dance with the devil

His hackles raised, wary still!

Yet he did not flee. He had seen the way The Big Man had cared for the Tired Woman in some sense.

Only he wished to care for himself, even if he did not know how. To drag himself through this without groveling at these women or allowing himself to be overly vulnerable. There was an unwillingness to let them too close.