Dusk was already gathering when I went outside to let the warriors calm down. The weight of my men’s disappointment a stone in my stomach, I sat on a stump with an arm laced around the wolf’s neck.
“I know I did wrong, but I could not leave him. All these years, and I was the only one who saw the Grey Man, much less stood against him. I am used to absorbing their evil power and bearing the consequences. It may be all I am fit to do.”
Gunnr licked my face. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his pelt, surprisingly silky and soft. We waited like that while the line of trees swallowed the orange ball of fire.
My actions gnawed at me. These warriors had done nothing but risk themselves to protect and love me. They cared for me, and put my life above their own.
Perhaps they w
