She should have anticipated anger; it would have been foolish of her to think otherwise. But the show of rage and hurt in Shiloh’s eyes as she approached still too her by painful surprise. The Nomad kept the child close to her chest, drawing her in protectively even when in sight of the child’s true mother. She braced a step back, anticipating there was more to this emotional rage to come. “Please understand Shiloh,” she woman begged. “I am sorry… I don’t know what came over me, rather I do but-“ she held the child closer with trembling arms, reluctant still to return the babe. “I didn’t want to give her back… and for that I am sorry.”
Hesitantly, she handed the child back to her mother unable to tear her forlorn gaze away from their reunion. The tether that tied the little one to her heart slowly began to fray and in vain to keep hold of that body, she reached out again to take the girl but retracted quickly once the alternative mind of Shiloh’s surged forward. The female brought her arms to her chest protectively, unable to defend her claim any longer.
The persona Ka’vi’s words struck the woman soundly in the heart, striking her down worse than any blow she had endured in her lifetime. Her selfishness coming to light, she hadn’t thought at all how Shiloh must have been feeling without her child. Her thoughts were solely on herself and the little one, and how they could prosper together. In her fantasy there was no other but them, damning all else to the recesses of her mind as she enjoyed her time with the precious girl. Calling her coveting actions selfish was not enough. “I hadn’t meant to hurt her like this…” the woman pleaded for understanding. “I just wanted...to experience that bond you share with her for myself. I wanted to know what it was like to have one depend on you… to care for you without condition and care for them in return.” Her ears hung shamefully as she turned her head from the reunited family damning herself for trying to encapsulate what they had at all. “I am sorry.”