it's hard to believe that i'll be fine one day

It was getting safer out here. Safer than it had been when Halo arrived, washed up on the shore of Boreas one day, and promptly been stalked by a predator. A big cat. Hell, she still had nightmares. The tenderhearted girl wasn't used to such things going on, especially with the crystals. It was scary. No, genuinely, it had been. Maybe Halo was weak for being afraid. Was the expectation that she just write it off as normal, as acceptable, as something that could just happen? Maybe she was still having nightmares about it because she was weak.

The previous night's sleep had been colored with those nightmares, despite having seen no signs of illness since bringing her raccoon friend back to health. It seemed that summer had chased the last dregs of it away. Maybe it was safe to venture further than she had been, so far? Would it make her feel better? Let's face it-- nothing could make Halo feel much worse. The grey had settled over her thickly today, and she didn't want to burden her packmates with it. Dawn had just begun to break over the horizon when she slipped from her den, telling her raccoon friend to stay put. She wasn't going to do chores, to revive the fire from embers, to collect water-- no. Today, she was going to go for a walk.

Though she usually enjoyed walking through the crisp morning air, today it didn't help much. Halo's mood was still sour, and she still felt... bad. Genuinely bad. What reason did she even have to feel this poorly? She'd been taken in by a pack, she was well fed, she was well cared for. Halo's head was fraught with conflict. What if she was letting them down? The girl was clearly the weakest link. She wouldn't be any good defending from a siege, from a raid. She was only now, as a grown adult, learning how to defend herself. Halo was a draw on their resources, and for what? The other healers, they could all fight. It was just Halo that found herself useless. How long would it be until they saw it too? Maybe they already did, and discussed it out of her earshot.

Her head spun with poor thoughts, clouded by the grey, as she crossed into the swamplands. At least this was promising. All sorts of strange herbs liked soft, swampy ground like this. Still, it was unlikely that anything could be done to improve Halo's low mood. She'd woken up sad, and she'd made herself even more sad. Today was one of the days where Halo didn't have the energy to fight the grey off, and instead let it win. Carefully, the pale healer picked her way across the swampy ground. The murk around her matched her mood well. If the Armada kicked her out, she'd just run away and live here, in this swamp. That probably wouldn't even be so bad... at least she couldn't burden anyone here.

Right. She was looking for herbs. Halo was looking, but due to her mood, it was a bit halfhearted. Still, she was looking all the same.

"Halo"