Ocean's Breath Plateau sky flier

perhaps it is for the best.
hurt flashes across red leaf's face for a brief flicker before it settles into a defeated emptiness, corners of her mouth twitching with so much buried and pent up emotion that she could just —
d-do you think--? she asks and yet she does not want to know, turning sharply away as she sucks in a breath and forces herself to hold it. i don't know what i'm going to do. m-my son, my son has no father anymore, i have--
her voice shatters in her throat.
i have no husband.
the cough which still lingered rattles her lungs, bringing her almost down to her knees as she begins to sag, sinking into the undergrowth. she wished she could disappear into it.
i know you don't care for him, chakliux, but he is-- he is all i know. he is all i h-- all i had. i am raising my boy all alone in a place with-with-with people who do not know my language, or my village, or my parents, or-- or our chief. i want;
breathe.
breathe.
breathe.
she does not know what she wants.
i did this. i-i-- i drove him away, i was-- selfish, and i took him from his people, and i-i gave him a broken son. her knuckles dig deep into the soil, searching, searching, searching for purchase that she cannot find. she does not even realize her boy has risen, shuffling about, nor that chakliux spoke to him.
she wished, in this moment, that the sickness would have taken her.