Being back here and seeing the tree he had marked for Eve's child made his heart feel heavy; he could feel the same suffocating feeling of overwhelm hovering on the horizon as it had in the days that followed Uriah's loss. Those dark clouds were filled with endless repetitions of what-if and why, and he knew all too well how easy it was to get lost in that cycle of thought. A peek toward Eve showed him that she did not seem unafraid of the storm, perhaps because she had weathered it alone for so long. She had, after all, been the one to show him the way out.
They paced together in silence for a moment before she accepted his offer, and he stayed in place while she walked ahead. The scent of her tears caused water to prickle at his own eyes and he had to take slow and steady breaths to calm his emotions. This wasn't his moment. He had had his time to grieve, and she deserved the same grace. And so he let her walk toward that birch tree alone, let her contemplate it for as long as she needed until she began to look for him. Wordless, he moved to her side and offered his shoulder for her to take, and then attempted to rest his muzzle against the furrows on her forehead.
She thanked him, and though he did not feel as though he deserved it, Solomon did not ruin the moment by protesting, only sought to press a kiss to her forehead. She deserved someone who would have done this for her in the beginning, before they ever hustled her from the Commons. Someone who would have allowed her the time to grieve her loss and come to terms with it before being forced to fill in as someone else's mother.
"Whenever you need me," he promised, his expression solemn.
"I will be there." It wasn't something he had done well at upholding before, but he was older now, and wiser. He had learned that most things - politics or power or grudges - were less important than family, as Eve was very much a part of his family.
"Carine," he echoed, a somber smile on his lips.
"I like it." He pulled away from her slightly to peer around them, searching for
something. He didn't know what he was looking for until he found it, but when he did, he moved toward the small patch of once-flowering plants and lowered his muzzle until he found a a stem. A few of the flowers were beginning to wilt because of the change of season, but multiple seed pods clung to the bottom of the stem, ripe with the next generation of flowers. Solomon moved to the base of the birch tree and carefully placed the stem down on the top of the mound in the hopes that come next spring, and the springs beyond that, little flowers would grow for Carine.
As he came back to Eve, he felt himself suddenly almost bashful and offered a sad, crooked smile.
"Flowers," he said, by way of explanation.
"For her."
Stallion | Dutch Harness Horse Mutt | Champagne Grullo Tobiano | 17 Hands | The Cove