Vanyel lifts his head again, and...reaches out, vaguely, in a gesture that's hinting in the general direction of 'hug'?

! 

Hug.

It is possible that Lucy had huggability in mind while designing this form. She is soft and her hair is cooperative enough to not get in his face particularly and there are no weird bony bits sticking into places they shouldn't. 

It's a good hug! Possibly a lot of the goodness of it is related to the hugger's claim that she can maybe– no don't think about the thing, the hope almost makes it feel less safe, but Vanyel hugs her anyway.

It does not, actually, make him cry any less. 

She does not mind at all. Sometimes you just need a good cry. Sometimes a good cry isn't enough, but it can't hurt. 

Eventually, Vanyel manages to run out of crying, and is just limp and exhausted and breathing unsteadily in her arms.  

Savil tugs at his shoulder. :Van, ke'chara, you should eat something and then try to get some sleep: They originally made camp well before sundown, but it's dark out now. Starwind and Moondance are sitting by a small campfire outside the mouth of the cave.

Food is very important even when your hunger isn't a danger to anyone but yourself. Lucy will super cooperate with Savil in getting some food into Vanyel. 

Vanyel is very halfhearted on the food matter. "I'm not hungry." Instead he tries to head straight for the bedrolls that Savil managed to lay out before Wilbur interrupted her. 

:Eat. My doctor teacher also taught me that sometimes we're not hungry even when we really need food. You won't do yourself or anyone else any favors by going without.: Do they have anything extra calorie dense? She'd have saved some of the bear fat if she knew this would happen...

Savil brings him jerky and dried fruit and cheese and travel-bread. Some of it's dense, sure, but still requires enough chewing to be a lot of effort to get the nourishment. 

:Do you want me to do some hunting tonight? If I had something freshly-killed I could soften some of that by re-cooking it in fat and then it would be even-more calorie dense,: Lucy suggests to Savil. :I'll be up all night anyway.:

:...If you really don't need the sleep and you've got the time after taking care of the basilisk, then yes, it would be useful: Savil admits. :We hunt sometimes to re-supply but it tends to require detours. Er, most species here aren't good for humans to eat, but I'll show you some that are: She attempts to send some images from her memories – there are some fat flying-squirrel-type animals, and some deer-like things, and a few others. 

:I slept just last week. Sometimes it's convenient being me. Alright, I'll see how much time I have after I've dealt with the basilisk.:

Vanyel shoves down the rest of the bread and cheese, and flops down on his bedroll. :Don't go yet?: he sends, a bit plaintively. 

:Okay. I can stay until you're asleep if you want.:

Vanyel nods and then closes his eyes. 

Savil pulls the blanket properly over him, and strokes his hair. :He doesn't usually warm up to people this quickly: she sends privately to Lucy. :Took him months to be this comfortable with ME. And I'm family – though, uh, that probably hurt rather than helped in this case: 

:Bad home life?:

:Yes. Definitely. My brother – well, we've never gotten along. Honestly he thought most of what Van was, wasn't good enough, but he especially couldn't tolerate his falling in love with a boy: She scowls. :He'll be lucky if I speak to him at all in the next ten years: 

:Oh dear. Even if I couldn't meet other people, everyone I grew up with loved me. It's awful when people don't get that. Is the boy the dead person?:

:Yes. They were...: She chews her lip. :Do you have lifebonds, where you're from?:

:No. What's that?:

Oh no now she has to explain it. Deep breath. :It's a...sort of magical link between two people. We don't know why they happen – Starwind and Moondance's people believe it's when the gods meddle. But it's a very deep bond. It's devastating to lose a lifebonded partner. As far as we know, Van is the first person ever to have survived it for this long. And he really didn't want to, at the beginning: She swipes at her eyes. :It's...been a really, really hard last nine months. And I don't know that it would ever get easier for him: 

:Oh NO. I'll do whatever it takes. Uh, I won't hurt people. Not hurt them hurt them. But if I have to sneak into the explosion place under cover of night and steal all the glass--if I have to invent a dozen new spells--I'll fix it.:

Savil...looks like she has no idea how to respond. 

Finally, after a long pause, she just reaches out and takes Lucy's hand and grips it hard. :Thank you: She glances down at Vanyel. :I think he's asleep. You can go: