For a moment or two, the others continued to stand around as if there was something they could do to help. But as Winter's tears continued Orek, Dink, Victor--they all quietly drew away, checking on Zelly, beginning their own low-toned conversations with their heads turned aside. Gareth, for his part, simply crouched there, his arms wrapped around the distraught half-dragon. He waited, and he held her, and he said whatever came to his mind. Whatever he thought would be the most soothing, although little of it was well-worded or even made too much sense: just a lot of "it's alright"s and "I know, I know"s.

And gradually, her crying ceased. Gareth stifled a sigh of relief: he'd never seen Winter and certainly never heard such raw hurt and grief in her voice, and at least a part of him had been trying not to think about what he'd do if she never did stop.
He gave her a squeeze and stared into her eyes as her head slowly raised. She looked like she'd flown a million miles and never rested once--some of the strain of their endless quest was clearly beginning to take its toll. It was an expression that wasn't all that far from homesick, come to think of it.
Homesick...
Something important was buried in that thought. But he set it aside to germinate until he could fully understand it.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," he told her a little more forcefully than perhaps he needed to. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. And I'm sure we're all sorry we didn't do more. But we had no way of knowing."

"We just have to protect her right now, and get her back to normal.
"Right?"