Redtail Rise LIX

red woman was hesitant in a way he had not seen before. mountain boulder was attentive, his ears cupped toward her as she spoke.

through tone and the language of the body, he gathered that she wished him to perhaps reinforce that he was loyal to the rise. he could not parse anything more nuanced, else he might have answered that he did not feel her trust and had grown wary of earlier security.

his ears slanted. trust. he did not trust she would not leave again and he did not trust that his choices in leadership would be upheld. the former was not his responsibility; wealda came and went and remained their head, as they wished. as he wished. the latter too, his appointment of other co-leads, was something he now surrendered to her.

but mountain boulder could convey none of this sentiment, a low whine of vague trepidation sounding beneath her hard indigo eyes.