Wheeling Gull Isle All this sand but only one grain changed me

A nod. Yep, the forest. But oh, how things had changed. This wasn't how he expected things to be. At all. He wasn't entirely sure if her question was supposed to amuse him, or really be answered in the first place. But honestly, he really didn't want to go over it. So he didn't really say, he shrugged, rolling a shoulder. I'm here now. I can help Hua. He was far less chatty than he had been before. For her, whatever had happened might have been long enough ago that she didn't mind talking about it but right now the best solution to him sounded like not letting anyone else in. It was enough. 

What was left of Mal? Just his family. To be here with Aibreann and Hua and his children. Otherwise he had nothing. He had lost his home, he had lost some of his children. Long ago he had lost his sisters. More recently, other people he'd promised to protect.. Why couldn't he have kept everyone safe and with him?