Blacktail Deer Plateau First thing's first — I'm the illest.

Grayday nodded in agreement. "I'll miss it, too," he admitted, turning his head as if he could really see the woods around him, and the pretty scene that the pond made all glittering and silver. Easy loved it here, and it'd been a good home to his family even through the bad times. The sicknesses, the intruders, the attacks... through it all, no one from his family had been harmed. No deep ties had been severed. No dear friends had departed. As far as Grayday was concerned, at least.

"But if wolves were meant to stay in one place, we'd have roots like trees," Grayday pointed out. "Instead, we have legs. And there's no one to tell us we can't come back here one day. We'll keep our ears up, and if we hear that things are settled in the area, perhaps we can winter here again."

He nudged Aditya fondly, tail wagging. "Maybe one day, our children will play together under these boughs."