King Elk Forest lift ev'ry voice and sing

he expects a follow up on his implied thought vis-a-vis moving, but instead she asks about burke. feeling very transparent, delight shuffles his weight between his paws. "no," he answers honestly after a moment, "it was -- you know the cliché -- it was his time. but he was with us from the start and he meant a lot to mato. i liked him a lot." delight shrugs again, a little uncomfortable, a little raw. he's not used to... he worked pretty hard to avoid anyone looking at him tenderly, and though he can tolerate it in short bursts (with the rare exception of gracious, for whom 'tender' is a modus operandi), queenie being gentle is a little too much to handle. he shakes his head and laughs, a short, hollow sound. "but anyway, you know, life goes on and all of that -- not exactly the first death i've been through." does queenie even know about his -- ah, well, whatever, it doesn't matter.