084

"Were promises meant to last and eternity?" Reynard asked slipping the cork from the wine jug. No one spoke as he took a swig directly from the bottle and handed it to Perun. Perun paused for a moment looking at the bottle and then drank deeply. He set the jug down beside him on the earth and wiped the corners of his mouth. "Things change as time passes. Aye we made promises," Reynard picked up the jug of wine from the earth and offered it to Cytheria whose eyes never left Perun's, "but to be held to them in the faces of such changes?"

"That is what a promise is." Perun said.

The bottle was passed to Kwyn who continued to clean herbs even as she listened to the conversation.

"Would we ever had made the promise if we had known the cost? Known what the future held?"

"You don't deny that a promise was made and then broken?" Perun asked.

Reynard retrieved the wine just and took two long drinks. He looked at Perun for a moment and then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "We were abandoned. How many failed to come year after year when we remained."

"Do you deny it?" Perun accepted the jug.

"We were forgotten."

"I say again: Do you deny it?"

"What is the point to your question? How can I deny it? I do not deny this, I only seek to explain it brother."

"It has been long since you've used that term 'brother'."