Stone Circle I slithered here from Eden

She traipses on fiercely, thick in self-righteous satisfaction! Silent save for the drawing of ragged breaths at odd intervals.

For a moment instead of numb she  permits herself to feel anger! Anger at Gunnar and Taktuq for leaving, at Bonario and Germanicus and Swiftcurrent Creek and all the ways in which their pack had been failed!

And at this rambling stranger!

In the next breath, she stops. In the following she is sinking down into the grass, wedging her face shamefully beneath the sheathe of her arms. Then she bursts into tears.

Kindness! What kindness? How can she be so cruel? To turn her crosshairs onto this blameless wolf, whose excitability was evoked by the prospect of joining with them! And what was he to think now?

“I-I’m s-so s-s-sorry.”