Shady

Ky sniffed and roughly wiped her nose again then sped up. This was so uncomfortable. She didn’t want to talk to him. Didn’t want to deal with him at all.

Pain and anger stabbed through her all at once along with guilt. “Nope. I’m just a terrible selfish person.”

“Bad,” she hissed, still refusing to look at him.

Ky scoffed scornfully, rolling her eyes. Fat chance of that.

Ky opened her mouth to respond, then thought better of it and closed her mouth again, instead just sniffling and rubbing her nose again. This was horrible. It’d be even ...

She caught it out of the corner of her eye but didn’t respond, instead just sniffling and roughly wiping at her nose.

Ky didn’t talk, either. She didn’t even look at him. She just focused on crying as silently as possible. And how utterly horrible it was going to be to go ...

Ky desperately tried to pull herself together, but it wasn’t working. She had a crushing sense of loss. Lost freedom; lost opportunity to see her mother; lost opportunity to prove ...

Ky miserably clambered onto the saddle, head hung, and murmured, “sorry for the trouble.” Then she clicked to her horse and urged him back towards Serpent Keep.

“Yeah.” Ky nodded, throat clenching and tears dribbling from her eyes. She turned away and headed for her horse. “Thank you.” Her voice was strained.

Ky looked between them helplessly, then gave a deep, despondent sigh, deflating. She nodded glumly. “Alright.”

“It’s…” Ky sighed and shook her head, wiping her face and then wiping the tears on her pants legs. They came away snowy and she huffed and pushed herself up. ...

“Thank you.” Ky loosened her grasp and then immediately collapsed on the ground, too tired to catch herself.

“Put him down!” Ky pleaded, still hanging off him. “He didn’t hurt me! Don’t hurt him!”

Ky jumped as high as she could and grabbed on to the hem of Humtur’s pants, getting a fistful of fur as well. “Stop! It!”