"Sifting Through"
(And now, the scene I wrote and posted in place of the previous one. On the positive side, it did give me a chance to have Vodola react to Levet's recent death ... )
The corpses from the latest wreck were piled and burning on the beach. Only Cairnait had suggested using the bodies for meat; the others, disgusted, had not even dignified her proposal with an answer.
Vodola was with Orlic, helping to go through some of the scattered wreckage from the reef's latest victim. "I can't believe they're all dead," the younger vixen shook her head. "They were so close ... "
"Looks like sharks got some of them," Orlic said. "A few might have made it, otherwise."
"The sharks wouldn't have been there if we hadn't attracted them with the bloody carcasses of those two giant lizards we threw into the surf. We're partly to blame for this, you know."
Orlic straightened from a section of wreckage she'd been inspecting. "It's Levet that still has you upset, isn't it?"
"Levet was stupid!" Vodola protested, a bit too forcefully. "What was he thinking, throwing himself at those monsters without any weapons? The rest of us were armed. He didn't need to sacrifice himself like that! We could have taken care of those brutes by ourselves!"
"Maybe his brave deed had more to do with himself than us," Orlic mused.
"What do you mean?"
"Levet knew he wasn't meant to be a free beast, and he didn't want to return to slavery either. There would have been nothing for him to go back to, even if he could have gotten off this island. There was goodness in him, but he didn't know how to bring it out, and that would have made it hard for him to fit in anywhere. So I would say that, for him, the suffering of his death was still less than the suffering of his life would have been."
"It's not right!" Vodola protested. "Nobeast should waste its life stupidly. Not even a beast like Levet."
"You cared for him at the end, didn't you?"
"I despised him!"
"Then why were there tears in your eyes as you came to his aid?"
Vodola glanced away, gazing out to sea. "You asked me before whether I might wish to join you as a traveling companion, once we get back to the mainland. Lately, I'm giving your offer more serious consideration. If it's still open."
Orlic smiled. "It is. But what about your school? Don't you wish to return there?"
"I think my school days might be behind me. There were things I was learning there that might not be best for me. And things I wasn't learning, I now realize, that maybe I should have been."
"Well, you certainly know how to handle those swords of yours," Orlic grinned wryly. "You'd be a good one to have on my side in any fight. But before you decide what to do with the rest of your life, let's see about getting off this island first. And let's hope that no more of us end up like Levet."
"We won't, if we're careful," said Vodola