Coppery eyes stared blindly out into the darkness, searching vainly for the face of his granddaughter. When Adelle came forward to lick him he responded in kind, tounge racing over her body frantically before he simply buried his nose in the puppy's soft fur. As long as Adelle was here his family wasn't dead, he still had her, Regner repeated the though to himself like a mantra as he breathed in the water dulled scent of what might well be his last surviving family member.
Regner physically flinched when Adelle asked about her parents, despite his relief at the confirmation of her good health. Both of them were dead; Regner had seen Alicia felled by an arrow as she had tried to drag one of the wounded to safety and while Regner hadn’t seen his eldest son's demise the entire camp had heard the howl of pain and defiance that had been his son's final words. Emotions warred within Regner as he fought with himself over what to say; this was far from an appropriate time to tell Adelle of her parent's deaths, he needed the puppy to be cooperative and focused, not stricken by grief.
But on the other hand blatantly lying to a puppy went against Regner's grain, no matter how much the truth would upset her. Unable to quell the internal conflict Regner answered weakly, "I don’t know."
There was silence for a while from the elderly hybrid before he withdrew his nose from Adelle's fur, giving her one last lick, "C'mon, we need to get moving." Pain blazed in Regner's injured leg as he forced himself up from the floor but he ignored it, focused on his task and survival. His clothing stretched and pinched uncomfortably as he moved but didn’t impede his movement that much; Broderskab clothing was designed as such and the worst that would happen was that his cloak might need washing.
"Will you be okay walking?" Regner asked, managing to regain some of the decorum in his voice. Adelle wouldn’t be expected to walk all the time, the puppy was far from suited for long journeys, but for now Regner was tired and injured; the puppy would have to pull her own weight for a short while.
Shadow-veiled face set grimly Regner limped into the shadows.
Image courtesy of UmbraDeNoapte-Stock
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