Desperate, yet no longer alone after that day, because we'd found each other.

I take a few breaths to calm myself, step back, and lift Buttercup by the scruff of the neck. "I should've drowned you when I had the chance." His ears flatten and he raises a paw. I hiss before he gets a chance, which seems to annoy him a little, since he considers hissing his own personal sound of contempt.

And then he gives me a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me.

Don't let him take you from me.

Maybe I'll be like that man in "The Hanging Tree'. Still waiting for an answer.

All I can think of is the emaciated bodies of children on our kitchen table as my mother prescribes what the parent's can't give. More food.

It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.