Greatwater Lake neither plague or famine tempered my courage

she woke that morning and the woods felt confining. 

there is little she hates more than feeling trapped, and so she'd asked @Moonshadow to watch over Scylla - the girl slept oft and was in no mood to leave the glen. she loathed to leave her children, so when @Astraea followed at her heels it took little else for her to scoop the girl up, and make her way to the borders and beyond. the sky stretched wide above, and the mid-morning was already comfortably warm. slowing and pausing by the lakeshore, she deposited the girl, unaware that children this young really ought not to be this far from easy shelter and protection. blackfeather hardly felt like that anyways, and she surmised that Hela was perfectly safe under her gaze. 

directing her sternly to stay, she moved to the shallows and turned once more to face the girl, who had done nothing of the sort and followed her to the water's edge. sighing, but allowing the disobedience, she focused on washing the most grievous of her wounds, ever alert and watchful should some other arrive. 

Walking along the water's edge, Rosencrantz watched the road ahead of him, but every now and then his eye would catch the sight of the liquid licking the shores near his toes. He was getting more and more accustomed to his new vision, eventually he would barely be able to tell a difference. Sure his depth perception may never be perfect again, but with some adjustments, there should be little effort in doing what he did before the incident. 

Within his travel across the beach, his eye rose up to meet the sight of what he assumed to be mother and young child by the water's edge. The pup was getting closer, but the mother was ever so watchful. 

He wondered why such a young pup wasn't tucked safely within a den of all things rather than at the side of a large body of water. Out in the open - but a mother knows best. It wasn't his new generation after all, so there was nothing for him to say on the matter other than to keep his maw shut. 

The thought of going around them and leaving the two be at peace did cross his mind, but as he stood there pondering... the female must have noticed him by now. Silence grew for a moment... 

...

With a heavy sigh the man sat down at the spot he stood. A little ways away so he wasnt much of a bother, but clearly not trying to hide. It seemed he had made the decision to wait there.

it is a relief to wash her wounds and see the sky stretch overhead, but the approach of a stranger has her quickly draw out of the water, moving to her daughter and lifting her skyward. she emits a cry, to cassiopeia's chargrin, and the mother moves further down the shore, both close to the Wood and further from the stranger. the situation is made somewhat less threatening by his apparent lack of interest in them, for the moment. but the situation unsettles the new mother, and so a moment later she is gone, retreated to the relative safety of the woods.