Herbalists' Cache When the levee breaks

shhh, she whispered, stepping forward, wrapping him in the warmth of her presence. come here.
she pressed her nose to his crown, anointing him with something quiet, something sacred. ridgeback was trembling, spilling confessions into the cold, and it hurt her to see him like this—to hear the way his voice fractured beneath the weight of what he had endured. she hadn't known. stars above, she hadn't known. how could she not have known?
his words rattled through her, a sickness blooming in her gut. sun eater had taken saatsine with bloodied fangs, with violence she had once praised. the raid, the death, the stolen child—these things had been hidden from her, buried beneath the life she had been building, beneath the love she had so foolishly clung to. her husband, her chieftain—he had been a monster long before he turned his teeth on her family.
you are not him, she breathed, fierce and sure. you are not a killer, ridgeback.
his fear was justified, his trembling not a mark of weakness but of a man who had been thrust into the depths of something far beyond him. she would not push him into that abyss.
her paw covered his, gentle but firm. you will stay, she told him, for the children. for me. there was no question in it. no command, either. only trust, only the promise that he would not be alone in this.
her voice softened. would you like to meet them?
a moment of respite, a brief light in the dark. she could not undo what sun eater had done, but she could give ridgeback this—something to hold on to. something to fight for.

all good!