crushing

She took his sudden rejection of the topic at hand in stride which was laudable. No one would have blamed her from completely changing the topic or even choosing to bow out gracefully since there wasn't anything else to be done with him. The woman spoke truth again; her thoughtful words clever, forgiving and so perfect for his predicament that he found his anger fading just as quickly as it had arisen. He breathed a sigh. "You're right."

The woman introduced herself as Riva and the slight shift away from the topic that made him uncomfortable was welcome. "I'm Pyrrhic and I..." Am what? A fighter from Aerie? How weak would that make the pack in her eyes if he was what passed as a fighter in the Abraxas pack? "I'm from Aerie, the pack just up there. I'm a uh, well I suppose a tinkerer." After a beat he signaled his willingness to touch on the uncomfortable topic again by saying, "And no, you're right. It's not. Though it would certainly be easier if it were."

Pyrrhic was quiet again for a second as he rested his gaze on their paws. Her touch embodied everything he thought he knew about her at this point. He could feel her warmth and her kindness, and the simple gesture conveyed the depth of her compassion. He wanted to know what that was like. To live in that feeling. "I saw something," he admitted as he finally broke down and decided to trust her. He was so desperate to be understood that once he got started he couldn't stop."Something that...shattered my understanding of the world." To use her metaphors... "It created the wound that I don't know how to fix. I have family I can lean on but...they are so strong and I am ashamed of this weakness."

He snorted a soft, sardonic laugh. "Somehow in a pack I am lonely. So tell me then, mighty healer, how do you fix a lonely, grieving heart?" Pyrrhic said, his eyebrows rising and the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a wicked, sarcastic smirk. "Is there even a cure for such a thing?"