stay the current course no matter what - don't change for anyone

The body of the elk wasn’t the first dead thing Menelik had seen. But it was, in a sense, the first time death hadn’t been a terrifying thing for him to face. The elk had been so still, and the glade that served as its resting place had been so quiet. Peaceful. There was no blood or bones shattered to pieces. Even the scavengers had let it be. If not for the rot, it almost seemed like the elk could be merely sleeping. Menelik wondered if anyone else had thought so. For there, beneath the stench of decay, he found traces of others. But not Eastwise.

Eastwise had told him to stay. Last time you followed me, and I was glad then, but now I wish you hadn’t. Please, Menelik, stay and wait. Trust me.

And it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Eastwise. Because he did. But he didn’t understand why he had to stay. Eastwise didn’t understand that well-meaning souls said things (and meant them) but things happened and sometimes a promise and all the trust in the world meant nothing. The hardest thing for Menelik to bear was that Eastwise should understand, given that Echo had vanished into the wind just like the greying mare had – the one Menelik was beginning to think had never been anything more than a dream that faded a little more with every rising sun.

When he heard the sounds of others approaching, he turned to bolt, the scene of the ailing grey king replaying in his mind so full of noise – the parade of strangers, the way East had quivered with grief and rage, that heartbreaking outcry that had Menelik turning back to see Warsaw no longer dying, but dead and gone. It had frightened the mute monochrome boy almost as much as Banshee’s slaughtering of a stranger had, and it only drove the thorn ever deeper into his heart: life was fleeting (and sometimes the ones you loved were suddenly gone, and there was no coming back).

A squeal of fright split the air as Menelik sensed as much as heard and felt someone quickly catching up to him. Whatever relief he felt at the sound of his name from the lips of Eastwise was short-lived, because there was anger there, the likes of which that had never been there before, and this was sharply accentuated by the warning nip that grazed the slope of his hindquarters. (Later, once Menelik had a chance to reflect, and Eastwise had a chance to explain, the younger of the two males would understand it was truly fear in disguise, fear for his own wellbeing.) “I told you to wait! Get home now!” He stumbled as he made for the borders of home, beyond which existed all the souls he loved, and no matter how many times he blinked back the tears that caught in his lashes, he couldn’t see quite so clearly as before.

menelik;