Sun Mote Copse he took his vorpal sword in hand

She didn't know why @Finley wanted her to gather up the prettiest wildflowers she could find, though Sugar did as her mother asked, happily collecting a bundle of blooms, none of them purple or poisonous. When she returned to show them to her dam, Finley nodded approvingly, then called out to let the rendezvous site's other inhabitants know they would be paying a visit to Wildfire's grave near the river.

Sugar's ears twitched at this news, though she said nothing, her mouth otherwise preoccupied. When Finley began to stride toward the territory's rear, she padded after her, holding onto the makeshift bouquet very carefully as they wound through the trees. It wasn't a long trip; they arrived at the riverbank in more than five but less than ten minutes.

"Over here," Finley instructed leading Sugar (and whoever else was there) toward a sun-dappled spot beneath a tree, within view of the water. The grass was a little shorter here, the pup observed. "You can put the flowers down, Suge," Finley murmured in a voice somber enough to earn a searching glance from Sugar before she gently set down the spray of blossoms.

For anyone who'd like to pay their respects (they're at Wildfire's burial site).

Title from "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.

-"But why? I don't want to go. I want to go hunting. You promised!"- Lucky thing Elfie was out of ear-shot of the party that had already gone to visit Wildfire's grave. So no one heard that the son, who was supposed to grieve for his mother's death and was expected to pay respects, was having an argument with his baby-sitter and mentor Wraen.

She had tremendous amount of patience, when it came to kids, but even for her dealing with the ego and reasoning of a teenager was sometimes a very tiring quest. -"Hunt won't go anywhere. We can do it later.Now be a good packmate and go with the others!"- Something in her voice made Elfie obey, though he still let her know, what he thought of all this "pay respects"-nonesense by sighing dramatically, frowning, stomping away and having an air of being gravely insulted.

This was not fair. Why should he care about some dead carcass under the ground, huh?! If her mom had cared for him and everyone else enough, she would not have died. Plain and simple. And there was silly Sugar Glider bringing flowers. Pathetic! They would wilt and soon be just as dead as Wildfire underneath. Serves her right, come to think of it! Selfish thing. She had ruined everything - dad and Weejay most of all.

He had caught up with everyone soon enough and took a seat on the edge of the clearing, a little distance between him and the rest of the party and was glaring at the patch of earth that marked his mother's grave. It would have caught on fire, had his gaze been able to transform the boiling anger within.

Never one to be left behind, Avery had been quick to trail after Finley and Sugar Glider on their way to visit Wildfire's gravesite. She hadn't collected flowers with her sister, but as she followed, she gathered that they were a gift of sorts for the deceased Sovereign. When they arrived, she watched as Finley instructed Sugar to put the bouquet near a tree, and she stood quietly for a moment, taking it all in.

Then, she padded towards the nearby river, her snout pointed at the ground and her sharp blue eyes searching the shallows. Within a few seconds, she leaned down to pluck a small, smooth, round stone from the edge of the riverbed, and she carried it back to the area where the grass was a little shorter. Carefully, she placed the shiny rock next to her sister's flowers, then stepped back with a small, reverent smile. The peacefulness was interrupted when she felt her hackles prickling, and she looked over her shoulder to see Elfie watching them all with a dour expression. He was clearly angry, but something drew her to approach him.

She didn't say anything, but circled around to stand alongside him, her shoulder pressing gently against his. Even if it didn't help -- even if it only made him madder and he moved away -- she still wanted to try to reassure him.

Others are welcome (and encouraged!) to still pop in here.

Sugar began to nose the flowers into a more satisfying arrangement even as the others milled about the grave. She glanced upward when Elfie and Avery took up posts nearby. They said nothing, though she sensed her cousin's anger and watched as her sister offered him comfort. Sugar glanced in Finley's direction again, only to see that she looked older and more tired than the pup had ever seen her. Finley's lips were drawn into a grim line, her eyes faraway and focused on some point in the distance.

She drew in a breath as she read the room as such, then turned back to the blossoms spread on the ground. There were several sprigs of pipsissewa; they made up the majority of the sprawling bouquet, along with small clumps of cottongrass. There was a spray of Oregon sunshine as well, plus a small variety of buttercups, irises and lilies. But the centerpiece was the small but bright bunch of coastal tidytips, their contrasting petals really pleasing to the eye. Sugar made sure to put these at the center of the display now spread out on the soil.

Satisfied at last, the pup took a few steps back from her handiwork, then raised her beady black eyes to see if the others had noticed the display or, more importantly, had drawn some solace from it. Her pink nose twitched with the temptation of a sneeze, though Sugar held her breath, trying to avoid disturbing the somber atmosphere rife with emotions she didn't quite understand.

The longer Elfie stayed, the angrier he got. There was no point in doing this - putting plants and shiny rocks and sitting sadly by the grave did not make a difference. After all you could mope elsewhere as well - wasn't Eljay a good example for this? Stupid, pointless... A bunch of Show-offs! He screamed at them inside his head, having too much respect for Finley to let this outburst be audible and perceptible. 

Someone touched his shoulder and he recoiled, baring his teeth at Avery. Pity was the last thing he needed. In his opinion things would be a lot better, if they all forgot about Wildfire and stopped acting like idiots. Finally feeling fed up with everything here, he got to his feet, turned on his heel and left. Angry tears were rolling down his cheeks, as he put distance between himself and those, who could witness it. 

Dead mothers were nothing but disappointments.

Avery had kind of suspected that Elfie wouldn't appreciate her touch, and she was right when he suddenly flinched away. She was surprised, though, when he peeled his lips back and showed her his teeth, the meaning behind the action crystal clear. She cringed and jerked in the opposite direction, but he was already on his feet and stalking away before she could really process what was happening.

She blinked after him, unable to see his tears but distinctly reading his anger from his body language. A small frown creased her brows, and she sucked her lower lip into her mouth and chewed on it for a long moment before she got up herself and padded back towards Sugar Glider and Finley. Her tail hung limp between her hind legs, but it gave a hopeful little wiggle as she settled herself next to her sister and turned her gaze to the assortment of colorful flowers.

Sugar blinked dumbly when Elfie bared his teeth at Avery before stalking away from the lichyard. She misliked seeing her sister treated this way and she didn't understand what had upset her cousin so badly. She felt a strange churning in her gut and looked to Finley, who was still off in some other place entirely, despite being seated only a few yards away. Nonplussed, Sugar could only give Avery an uncomfortable shrug when she approached, followed by a quick nudge.

She saw her sister looking at the floral display, yet despite how carefully she'd picked these flowers and created the arrangement, Sugar suddenly didn't want to be here any longer. This place was full of bad feelings, that was for certain. But would Finley care if she (and probably Avery) left? She didn't seem to be paying much attention, nor had she reacted to Elfie's departure. Perhaps she might not even notice.

"Wanna go over to the water?" she whispered lowly into Avery's ear even as she studied Finley. Their mother seemed in such a strange temper. Maybe she would even prefer to be left alone.

Sugar wasn't the only one feeling discomfited by the situation; her suggestion to move away was met with subdued eagerness from Avery. "Y-y-yeah," she replied in an equally hushed voice as she hopped into a standing position once more. She glanced over at their mother, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, then turned and began to pad towards the water's edge.

She made no effort to hide the fact that they were leaving, somehow knowing that Finley wouldn't mind. And she was right; while Fin surely kept her watchful motherly gaze on them, she did not shift or speak to dissuade her daughters. Avery marched right into the shallows, letting her toes sink into the silt as the water lapped around her ankles.

With a sideways glance at Sugar, she said, "Your f-flowers were pretty."

Sugar's lips twisted thoughtfully at Avery's stutter, which was even more pronounced than usual. Perhaps Elfie's display had made her sister especially nervous, not that Sugar really knew if that's what caused her sibling's speech impediment. In any case, she didn't think too long on it, trailing alongside Avery as the two traipsed over to the water's edge.

While Avery waded into the shallows, Sugar perched on the shore, digging her toes into the especially soft silt there. It soothed her, though she paused when Avery remarked on the flowers. She looked up from her soiled white toes and offered her sister a small smile of appreciation. "Thanks, Ave," was all she said before resuming her kneading. She hummed quietly under her breath as she worked the damp earth like bread dough.

Only when the sensations became less pleasurable did her attention move on to something else: a growth of reeds growing in the water not far from Avery's position. They looked just like any long grasses, albeit their long shoots disappeared into a root system obscured by the river's depth. At the water's surface, the reeds were a yellowish brown, though the long blades were a vibrant green.

"I wonder what those're called," Sugar murmured, mostly to herself, though she peered curiously at Avery, wondering if her sister might know.

Avery smiled as Sugar thanked her, then the sisters lapsed into a comfortable silence. In the absence of conversation, Avery could hear the soft sand and dirt churning beneath Sugar's paws, along with the gentle lapping of the water against her own legs. While Sugar busied herself with her digging, Avery peered into the murky depths of the river in search of more rocks to collect. She was picky about what she added to her compendium, but because she had found a pleasant-looking stone for Wildfire's grave, she hoped that she might find another attractive one to take home.

She glanced up when she heard Sugar speak, and looked in the direction that her sister indicated. She was studying some tall grass that was, curiously enough, growing out of the water instead of on land. Avery wasn't as into plantlife as her sister -- rocks were her jam, for some reason -- but she still cocked her head to one side and gave the reeds a curious look. "D-dunno," she replied, then gave a gasp as a water bug skated out from behind the blades of grass and skimmed across the surface.

Avery didn't know either. Before Sugar could contemplate taking a closer look, if that was even possible, her sister's gasp snagged her attention. She saw the bug skating across the water too. She marveled at the way it seemed to float along the surface. She wondered if she could do that too. It would make studying the underwater plants a little easier if she could simply hover over them.

The insect soon disappeared downstream and Sugar peered across the water, black eyes searching for anything else interesting in this aquatic habitat. Driven by curiosity, she waded in, joining Avery in the shallows. When the water touched her chest, the cold touch against her underside drew a small gasp from her lips. She grew used to it quickly enough and was able to plant her feet and peer directly downward into the depths.

The water was neither clear nor muddy, but somewhere in between. Sugar squinted and waited for the silt to resettle around her legs. When it did, she could make out a muddy bottom peppered with rocks of varying shapes and sizes. Wondering if her sister had already noticed, her beetle black eyes raised to Avery's face and then dropped again.

She watched as the insect slid away, eventually disappearing from her line of vision and leaving only a small ripple in its wake. She blinked and turned her attention to Sugar as her sister waded in alongside her. Sugar's paws briefly stirred up the sediment at the bottom of the river, but it settled once she stilled and Avery smiled. She met her sister's gaze, reading the unspoken question there, and nodded.

"T-tell me if you see any good ones," she instructed, knowing that her sister would understand that she meant rocks. She then resumed her studying, a small crease between her brows as she searched.

Sugar returned her sister's nod with a small smile. "'Course," she replied easily, now actively scanning the river bottom for any particularly comely stones. None caught her eye in her immediate vicinity, so she began to wade further afield from Avery, moving as slowly as she could to avoid stirring up too much of the sediment.

Her back was turned to Avery as she continued combing, only for something to come drifting along downstream, bobbing on the water's surface. It reminded her of the insect, although it was a different shape and size entirely. When it reached her, bumping gently into her leg, Sugar recognized it: a pine cone. Instead of reaching out to grab it, she let it bumble past her and continue its course downstream. Her black eyes followed its progress until it disappeared.

Sugar revolved a few degrees, now facing the shore, and was considering moving back to dry land when something finally captured her attention. There was a spot of color among the various shades of brown under the water. She moved toward it, waiting patiently for the murk to clear, then deliberated a moment before thrusting her snout underwater. Her teeth closed around the object, then she quickly raised her head and leaped toward the bank, giving herself a bodily shake.

She dropped her find and blinked. Sugar took it for a bright blue rock, unaware that she'd actually discovered a piece of sea glass. As it dried, the luster faded a little and revealed a surface pocked with white. She admired it for a few moments before abruptly remembering to flag Avery's attention.

"Ave," she called, "come look!"

Avery grinned at Sugar's affirmative response. She knew she could depend on her sister, and vice versa -- if Sugar ever asked her to help her with searching for flowers or plants, she was quick to oblige. She might not have known much about the greenery by way of proper knowledge, but she was interested, even if rocks were her preference.

She waded away from her sibling, moving slowly so as not to stir up the water too much, and was making her way toward the slightly shallower water. There tended to be more sizable pebbles there, she found, and even if none caught her eye at first, she could always sift through her options and examine them more closely. She had just poked at a small stone that actually turned out to be a clump of dirt that fell apart at her touch when she heard Sugar call her name.

She looked up to see that Suge had exited the river, and, no longer caring about the murky depths, she moved quickly to see what she had found. Her eyes rounded as she came to stand alongside her sister, peering down at the blue sea glass. "Whoa," Avery breathed, reaching down to nudge the artifact's smooth surface with a toe. She grinned. "G-good job, Suge! This one's w-way cool," she said.

Her sister's joy and praise set Sugar's tail stirring and whirring, and she directed a toothy smile at her. Although she admittedly didn't see much use for rocks, this one certainly looked very unique and would make a brilliant addition to Avery's collection.

The sound of footsteps made Sugar glance up from the shard of sea glass, just as Finley quietly said, "Girls." Sugar's tail stilled and her smile dimmed as she regarded her mother's somber demesne. "Let's head back." As if sensing the effect her expression was having on her daughters, she mustered a tired smile.

"Okay, coming," Sugar said, ever obedient, although particularly when her mother was in such a temper. "C'mon, Ave. Don't forget your perty rock." She shot the other little girl a quick smile, then padded to join Finley for the walk back to the rendezvous site.

As they walked past the grave again, Sugar took one last look at her handiwork and quietly smiled to herself.

Avery's nose was only an inch from the sea glass's surface as she studied it, and she didn't notice her mother's approach until Finley spoke. Even then, she had to work to tear her gaze away from her sister's beautiful find; but she did after only a moment's hesitation. Finley was letting them know it was time to go home, so Avery nodded.

She grinned at Sugar's reminder about the stone. As if she would forget it! She collected it carefully between her teeth and trotted to catch up with her mother and sister, bumping her hip affectionately against Sugar's as they headed back to the rendezvous site.