Swiftcurrent Creek loyalty, got royalty inside my dna

If he squeezed his eyes shut, real tight, he could pretend it was Pema. His mother's embrace, her tongue, sliding over his soaked fur to dry him. The notion of this soothed him slightly, even though the nagging voice at the back of his head screaming THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!! still raged on. He kept pushing reality further and further back, trying to relax under her ministrations.

"H-h-hot," Timberlake stammered, not knowing quite how to tell her the story of how exactly he'd come to be here. "B-big and hot, b-back at home. I r-ran away." He had no concept for fire, flames, or any of it. He could only hope that the woman would grasp onto his words and know what he was talking about; perhaps the smoke billowing over the horizon would lend her better context.