Hushed Willows The voices in my head keep telling me I'm cursed.

The boy was all talk. It was hard to follow all of it. Glaukos was dizzy from blood loss and half-starved, surviving now by sheer willpower. The longer the other wolf rambled the less Glaukos listened - not out of ignorance, but the lack of focus that comes with trauma and the aftermath of violence. He was a trained soldier and as such, focused on his training as much as he could

What the wolf offered was help, but not anything concrete. Glaukos knew the area. He knew if he could get a little farther he would make it to Mereo and to help; he needed not rely on a stranger. Could he make it? Probably not. But he wouldn't ask for help. The last thing he wanted was to owe any debts.

Leave me be, he told the stranger. He had no reason to turn away the charity of his help except ego. The man huffed and lifted himself to his feet again, to slog his way among the willows. He would know soon enough that there was no path to the mountains here - and he would have to double back, regardless.