Bearclaw Valley I thought we might play catch, or... I dunno

Well, Laurel tried, at least. In Lucas' eyes, her efforts were flawless. She was center stage, her moves flowed and captivated, and her wide-eyed song watched her slow rotation with a huge grin even though the reality was far less stellar than what he saw. Things in the eyes of a child were often magnified to a great degree, and that was true of everything Lucas' mama did, too.

"Yeah!" Lucas chirruped in response, righting himself and slapping his hocks with his rapidly wagging tail. Spinning was hard, wasn't it? Not so much for him, he was young and flexible and impervious to the pain of bruising in his youth. Laurel was, well, old. To him, at least. But she'd done an amazing job, making her small dancer of a son proud, and that was what counted. "Watcha wan' do, mama?" he wondered next, smiling eyes fixed on her pink nose.