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Though he did not look into his eyes, he saw the shift of emotion within them as the man gazed at him. Pity. Sympathy. The stare of a wolf telling him to hold himself together. He recalled, the thought vague in the back of his mind, that this was the man that helped gave him life, the last of his siblings to be delivered by his hands. He wondered what he must have thought to see him huddling by Eclipse's side, like two pups caught in a storm, dripping with cold water and abashed with unmerciful gales and innocents scorned. He must have been seeing such a sight, for he felt frozen and blown down to his knees.
Eclipse's squeeze and her words only made the torrent inside of him harder to withstand. He had to be still a moment to compose himself without a single sound. No sighs, no whines, no sobs, he told himself. Not now, he repeated in mind.
He watched as Taliesin handed her poppy seeds. They helped with pain, right? Everything he learned of the plants he studied seemed to be emptied, gone in this situation. The rest of the healer's words were only half heard by the man as he leaned into Eclipse, head rested on her's, looking down at her. He sensed the man bending forward to touch her stomach, but paid him no heed. He held her hand with a new vigor, and tried to imagine it as an achor. She wasn't done yet. There were more--yet to be determined how many, but it was already one too much. The stench of blood was stronger than anything else, but he brushed his nose against her hair softly, breathing in the scent of the woods that seemed so far away though they stood so nearby.
"You'll make it, Eclipse. I promise." The words were whispered in her ear, perhaps too soft for Taliesin to make out. "We'll go out onto my roof again and see the stars. We'll go hunting together, and I'll catch a rabbit for you." Maybe he was trying to distract the both of them from the reality of what was happening. Maybe he was only murmuring nothing to only himself, being told to deaf ears. But, all he was saying was what he wanted--a future with her in it. What future did he have without her, if she was to perish here even when there were no threat? What was life when she was the one that made him actually live it instead of wasting it into books? "We'll do so many things Eclipse... Just wait and see."
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