Kune’s heart is in his throat as he awaits her answer, yet her expression says it all before she so much as opens her mouth. All at once Kune is overcome by emotion again, and for a few long moments he is unable to speak. He has been adrift for so long, isolated and alone and hopeless, feeling as though his life was worthless, and now, to suddenly have purpose and hope again… it is more than he could have hoped for. A deep, dark part of him wonders if Božena would be so willing to accept him into her life if she knew what had befallen his herd, but he pushes that corrosive thought to the back of his mind, and allows himself to experience this fleeting moment of bliss.
His dark eyes shining with emotion, Kune bows his head to Božena and holds it there, his nose just inches from the cold earth. “You don’t know what this means to me. You have my life, Božena,” he tells her, and he means it with his whole heart. Though she is little more than a stranger to him, she will be his second chance to prove himself. For all those he failed to protect before, he will protect Božena now, in their memory. She will be his Moudrost, and he will be her Strážce, and together they will be the last of their people.
Lifting his head, Kune regards Božena with a small, sheepish, smile, as if to say, ‘What now?’, while overhead, snowflakes begin to drift from the stark grey sky.
8; kladruber; black; 17.2hh
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