Iktome Plains Crash Love

Sorry for the wait - busy weekend. I knew this post would be coming, but it was still on the difficult side to write.

"I can't wait for you to meet Easy. You'll love her - and she'll love you," he stated confidently, continuing to affectionately lick her face. He then pulled his head back for a moment, gilded eyes studying every last millimeter of her face, intent on memorizing her every feature.

His expression suddenly altered, the sparkle in his eyes unexpectedly extinguished as she relayed the news of her incident; it seemed frozen somewhere between an eerie blankness and shock, his lips slightly parted as his pupils contracted suddenly. Inside the confines of his mind, a hellscape had opened up, memories erupting from the ground of his consciousness of bodies charring in inescapable flames. Feelings of intense dread, helplessness, and panic began surging through his veins, running his blood ice-cold before it switched to the almost unbearable burn of a sudden adrenaline surge.

She got hurt. He was away, and she'd gotten hurt. What if it had been just like what happened in the summer? While he'd been out scouting, and he came back to the cries of the condemned. What if this boy had never shown up, and she'd remained trapped beneath the fallen bough?

'Mac tried to conceal his trembling, but it was an unconscious reflex. 

"I-I'm sorry," was all he could get out, "I-I should have been here." Guilt arose unbidden and unwelcome. "Are you okay? What can I do?"

Speaking was helping. He tried to calm his racing breathing, his wounded mind still reeling as it tried to process this information.