Bramblepoint red-hawk for dinner

Aureli hadn't been quite sure how his "plan" would be received, and in the aftermath, he still wasn't quite certain. He thought he could see her disappointment, but she was bearing up in front of her son. Mostly.

"Let us hope," Aureli agreed, his patience thinning. He transferred his attention back to Delos, having decided that it would be the boy and not the mother who would be in charge of said treatment plan. Pointedly, he ignored her praise.

"You should eat," he said to the boy. "You will need your strength. We will be traveling to find some of these herbs. Moke."

The last word was said to the cat, summoning her from the brush.

"Come," he told her as her head popped back out of the brush. To mother and son: "I will find you in the morning. I must make my own preparations."

Which was code for eat — but he preferred others to assume he had no bodily needs of his own.