Arrow Lake like paper love

from deep in the slanted shadows, stigmata watched her. distant, longing, and either unable or unwilling to articulate the squall of new perceptions coursing through him. he feared that he had done too much wrong to ketzia - left her alone for too long - and treated her selfishly enough to simply burrow his way to her side now; full of guilt and malcontent. he felt too proud to beg for forgiveness and simultaneously like she deserved nothing less. he had never feared a she-wolf before, but he feared her. what she thought, what she might want. or not want anymore.

he thought too late about how seeing takiyok grow round with his pups might make her feel. and he wondered even more why he would care at all about that, when such a thing had never occurred to him before in his years as a breeder...

almost like a switch, gratitude began to sweep away his self-doubt and reluctance to approach. ketzia was alive. he had nearly lost her, and here she was: conscious and moving on her own - if not a bit lackluster. he remembered clearly the panic he had felt night after night she had still gone unreturned, and then to find out that it had not been her choice to stay away was another kind of living death in itself. one he would have to cope with alone if he wanted to make amends.

stigmata slunk down from the treeline and into the light, having watched her wince through enough of this bath, and he came quietly to the rippling shoreline. in her peripheral, the general threw himself onto his side, legs splashing into the shallow wake, and whined for her faintly; wanting first to see what kind of attention she would pay him.