Big Salmon Lake [BWP P4 Prey Opportunity] katatonia

And know indeed did Dirge to whom Dragomir referred. He knew a thing or two of what it was to be abandoned, though not by a mother. She was but a glimmer of white against a paling, colored backdrop and as though on cue with the boy's words he saw Arcturus rise to the challenge of warding her off. A quiet moment passed where Lyra streaked by them as an emboldened wraith; the tension hit a fevered pitch and descended into movement on all sides before he saw the pale sylph disappear through the weeds and fade entirely. She was wise to do so, though cruel in the manner she had fled motherhood, he did not wish for her children to see another parent have flesh rendered from bone.

They firmly had the upper hand now, if not by sheer number alone.

A solitary note left him after, no more than a puff from his lips—it is done.

"You needn't trouble yourself with her now," he said to the boy, "but watch—see how we work and provide for our own and know that you and your sister will not go hungry." A small comfort, perhaps—he hoped it to be a balm to soothe a burn rather than a panacea. They had been through enough and be it paternal inclination or not, it struck home in ways he could not describe, and did not venture to investigate.

breaking the loose order here—dirge isn't really apart of the conflict so ignore me squeaking in another post between shifts at work