ELRETH
She walked stiffly back to the cave, pleading with him in her mind to follow, to come after her, to pull her into his chest, to… to give in.
But he didn't follow her. She couldn't believe he didn't follow her.
She paced the cave for twenty minutes before she accepted that he wasn't coming after her, then threw herself on the sleeping platform and wept like a baby.
She hadn't cried that hard since… since she was a cub.
How could he not see this? How could he not see that she was offering him the world on a plate? That she WANTED him to make the disformed a success. That she yearned for him to give her their perspective on every issue, not just them becoming a tribe! That's one of the reasons she wanted him as her cohort to begin with!
Why couldn't he see that if he didn't protect his relationship with her, his relationships with the disformed wouldn't work either?
