[se] when another is gone

every time i think i've finally made it, i learn i'm farther away than i have ever been before

Noah's days were too long. Too long and too busy. He couldn't remember the last time he had sat down for a meal, or had a conversation with Delphine. His days were spent out on the tundra and the frozen sea. He hunted and fished and trapped until he had enough food to bring back for those that were sick, and the families he provided for that seemed to be losing more and more members each turn of the season. When he wasn't doing that, he was moving about Snowcloak, listening to the residents of the frozen hellscape give their complaints or ideas or wonderings about this place. It was his job in the government, to hear the people and be a liaison for them to Morgan. The later part of that job was lacking -- he couldn't remember his last conversation with the wild-haired Warden that was more than in passing.

These things would need to change. Noah knew that. It was just the practical steps of making it happen that he struggled with.

As he moved to the Infirmary with a bagful of dried seal meat, he thought it all over. He did more than mull over what needed to happen--he wrestled with it. He wrestled more with his thoughts now than he ever did. His heart pulled in all different ways, his soul sinking its teeth into too many places. Delphine here. Hunting there. The people of Halo over there. It all tugged and tugged and tugged and Noah couldn't remember how to be good through it all. The bag came down off his shoulder as he slumped it over a table. With a long, drawn out breath he silences his warring thoughts for the time being, and divvied up rations for the patients in the infirmary. Glacier eyes looked around for Loren, but he was nowhere to be seen.

The hunter spent time moving about the people--not as many as he thought were here--and gave them their dried meats. It was easy and good on the stomach, and he hoped it would help give them some strength back. When he stumbled upon a stranger, Noah hesitated a moment before sitting in a chair beside his cot. "Here," Noah almost-whispered, voice as gentle as he could muster, as he extended his hand out with a bowl of dried meat.

NOAH