Dawnlark Plains ι

Other Shore could not tell if Star Eater was placing her hopes within the Winsook strangers, but should they persuade Sun Eater or even dare to try, she knew gratitude would rain from the sky.

She did not attempt to chase the reasoning of the Winsook man, nor dwell on him for long after his departure. But the woman - his wife, she presumed - was offering kindness she had never seen from a wolf of one pack to a wolf of another. Again, perhaps motherhood penetrated more barriers than she could see. 

She let everything be still for a moment, focusing inward when there was little for her to do. The war had, until now, failed to feel so utterly real. It was ludicrous to her mind as much as her rationality stated otherwise. But here was a stranger comforting the wife of another chieftain; here was that same wife calling her husband mad; here was peace so unstable that rationality could no longer hold it together. 

She felt fear, but it was not quite the same primal fear one felt at the mercy of death. It was a helplessness, a realization of how little she could do, how little she was capable of, when protecting everything she had just barely begun to grasp. 

A flinch. She hoped Star Eater did not feel it. Then she focused outward to avoid that realization of fear. She was unsure if she wanted to leave or stay, but felt rooted there until Star Eater gave the command, and simply let the woman lean on her and find steadiness where she could not within herself.