Redtail Rise buoyant

His joke fell flat, and Lilia’s ears turned back as if in annoyance. She curled her tail tightly around her haunches and hunched her shoulders. She’d been holding her breath, pushing it down and swallowing to keep herself from gasping.

He came closer and she snapped her head around to see the softness in his eyes, just as a tear fell down her cheek. Her eyes widened.

Ancelin knew the feeling; his parents had left him too. 

The realization that he shared the same grief made her break, though he fought so valiantly to keep his own emotions at bay that she did the same. She rested against him, lifting her head to be cradled beneath his jawline. 

She knew she could break down, cry, sob even- and that he would hold her, as though trying to hold the pieces of her together. But he had pieces that needed to be held, too. The loss they felt was a grief they shared- and whatever pieces they still had left seemed to fit together, and build an even more impenetrable wall.