quite eradicated
For a time (though this had been brief) Ezekiel had lived among others, and sat around fires while storytellers spoke of things that had passed, things that held meaning to them—it was from these people he had learned the concept of tone as it applied to speech. So while his eyes took in the subtleties in her facial expression and the more obvious (to him, at least) signs in her body language, he heard the words and the story with another perspective entirely.
Her story was not entirely new, nor one he could not identify with. After all, his own mother had up and vanished after returning as a stranger. Even though he looked at her, his eyes went dull and darkened. How long, now, had it been? He didn’t recall anymore.
A hand, extended over the fire, was assaulted by a swarm of fireflies. They rushed from a broken branch, shooting up in a hot spiral towards the darkness and their demise. He felt heat, and smelt his fur singe, but there was no pain. With a firm grip on the meat, he plucked it from the coals. It was hot, but not enough to harm his thick pads. “My sister is gone too,” he admitted. “Kaena told me, a long time ago, that I had to keep hoping she was alright. And she was, for a long time…”
The roasted bird was passed to his cousin, and Ezekiel let out a half-hearted laugh. He smiled sadly. “You know, this is the first time I haven’t gone after her.” He had considered it, too. Talitha hadn’t even told him goodbye, though, and that betrayal stuck with him in a way nothing else had.
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