Stone Circle Rage and Grief beset

his eye.

his body.

germanicus felt the tears rise and angrily he shoved them away. he held aquillius as the healer set the bone, tensing for any sound of pain or writhe. and when it came, the steel-bound strength he had honed for years pinned the would-be general of mereo to the earth, quiet save for the seethe of breath in his throat until the moment passed.

a man should not hold his son as though the younger lay dying upon the field of battle, the eagle thought, reaching to steady the boy's head against the ground.

he was haunted, staring, castigated by a thousand haunting ghosts, as much as he had been with meadow that night of his weakness and the feline.

germanicus wanted to strike the woman for causing the boy more agony, but he saw it only as the answering anguish of the feral creature he too housed in his flesh.

"please inform gunnar i would like to stay until he is recovered," he asked of the healer, noting her face at last. "what is your name? you are clan to crowfeather. i would ask that you hold me in debt."