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As Njal lowered his head once more, he tried to steady himself. To ease the burdensome thoughts from his mind, the doubt, the heartache, so that he could howl to his family. Imagining Tuwawi's face, her sorrow and frustration when it was learned that Larus was nowhere to be seen... This is what steeled him against a second attempt. He stood with the bare, chilled morning settling around him. And then a familiar voice roused him - he turned his attention upon the approaching figure, and while Njal was pleased to see a familiar face, he was silent.
Roaming eyes - he had anticipated that - and then the realization that Larus was not with him. Njal couldn't bare to even look upon the young woman as she searched for the child. She spotted the skull, which Njal briskly nudged away from himself. It half-rolled and then sank against the soil.
You got one of the bastards. Where?
She was pleased, but that wasn't what had transpired. The memory of finding the tomcat was something that Njal went over, time and again. Studying the events for traces he may have missed. He had found the male in a bloody state, all lacerated skin and sagging flesh. Njal had set upon the beast swiftly and ended his misery, but there was little work involved. Larus had not been there.
West.
was all he could muster. In to unknown forests, where the scent of the boy dwindled. Where the tomcat's body lay in the shadows of the trees, probably picked clean by scavengers by now. The man took a breath and tried to include more, to give Danica some sort of assurance, but Njal had lost hope. There were more than we thought,
more lynx, he meant.
But enough about the damn cats.
The beast lifted his gaze to Danica's face, finally, knowing he wouldn't be able to hide the immense sorrow which he harbored; beside her there was suddenly another figure, and while Njal's mind told him, Malachi, he was too overwhelmed by other thoughts to even acknowledge the boy just yet. The sheen across his eyes had dulled by this point, but the rest of him - his body, mind, and soul - reeked of loss. He's gone. Larus is... I couldn't...
His body sagged as he slouched back upon the earth, deflating with the effort of this announcement.
And then, another thought.
I must see Tuwawi. She has to know.
But there would be more tragedy ahead for the patriarch of the Sveijarn family. Sadness was all the glacier had left for them.