Shadewood in sickness & in health ii

Cormorant hardly jolted as Magpie's weight bumped his, his legs already shakily locked; a vacant fear he would fall, keeping him up. The instinct still managing to hollow his bones into something alive said collapsing meant death. An addled mind took it for gospel, squeezing distressed breaths between teeth.

His ears hardly twitched to the sound this time, before his legs were bumbling him forward, urged by Magpie's prodding. His complaint only came in a unhappy twist of his head, a gesture that left him swaying too far a side, his dizziness doubling as blood washed around inside his skull. His nose tipped down at a harsh enough angle that all he could see really clearly was the grass pressed beneath his paws, blindly following wherever Magpie led.

Maybe if he kept quiet and obeyed, they would find a place to rest sooner — no thought sounded more beautiful than that.