Otatso Wetlands sandhill

Ah — so this was the other kind of hurt. The kind that went hand in hand with violence, Wildflower had decided. He let out a soft breath and let himself down to his haunches. It was gonna be one of those talks, it seemed like.

He wanted to comfort the man. He wasn't sure he deserved it, but what did anyone know about what anyone else deserved? Wildflower knew he wanted to be comforted, and so he assumed the same was true for everyone else. And he wanted to do what people wanted — he wanted people to be happy. He wanted to make people happy.

But he didn't know how to do that.

"Ah," he said, as if that explained everything to him. But he asked, "Did you mean to?"

It occured to him all over again that this might be a dangerous man. All he could think was that they were in good company.