Hideaway Strath I still press your letters to my lips.

@Towhee and @Phox   :)

For how long had he wandered? How long since Elysium had crumbled? Were his mothers still alive, trailing elsewhere - unscathed - with Sunny and the others? And his brothers? He hoped so. With every fibre of his being, he hoped.

While his family were safe and warm in the comfort if his mind, Sundance was irrevocably lost. He was exhausted, starving, filthy, and entirely alone.

Until he happened across fresh territory markers, the scent of his own kind. The boy felt his body sag then, let it crumble to the ground below him. He did not know if this was the result of relief or if he'd finally succumbed to exhaustion, but he went down willingly.

I hope it's cool to set this in the middle of the night? If not, just let me know and I'll edit. :)

Towhee couldn't sleep. She hadn't really rested since before @Fennec's disappearance but she was particularly restless tonight. For want of anything better to do, she circled the grove, once, twice, thrice. On her third pass by their proverbial front porch, something drew her attention and she broke from her mindless pattern to approach the small lump positioned almost dead center of the stone corridor.

Her heart skipped a beat when she looked down at the small, pale form. But it wasn't her daughter. Now her heart sank. But Towhee reached out and tentatively nosed the body. It was a whelp. He was still warm, breathing. He looked very rough. Towhee couldn't help but wonder if he'd been displaced by the quakes and some mother was out there, losing her mind over him the way she was losing hers over Fen.

Yep, I'm good with that.  :D

He slept. Not soundly, but it was all he felt he could do, all he wanted. The boy curled close to himself, pulled his hind limbs to his undersides and tucked his snout alongside them, too exhausted to care for the vulnerability he felt.

When he felt something loom over him, Sundance's eyelids fluttered but did not open. He shifted a little, convincing himself that this could only be one of his mothers standing guard, and sleep coaxed him swiftly back into its depths. Yes, that was all this could be: @Olive or @Seabreeze, watching over him so that he might slumber peacefully.

A nudge came, perhaps @Atwood shoving at him to try and find better comfort, and he shifted a little. Awareness crept up on him at the touch and, remembering that he had seen none of his relatives in what felt like eons, the young Shakti unfurled a little to blink sleepily up into a dark face. "Mama?" Sundance murmured, confused. Could it really be @Ariel? Had he come to sweep him off to wherever it was that death had taken him? His other dams had said that his spirit would remain with them always, so... this made sense, right?

He willed himself to move, to be closer, but his body ached and his energy was depleted. All he could do was lay there, the only movement to offer being the soft and pitiful wagging of his silver tail.

There was no replacing Fen, though Towhee's aching heart could not help but throb as the pup roused and moved weakly. Wordlessly, she lowered herself to the grass beside him, her body curling around his protectively, as she reached out to place a lick on his forehead. It wasn't like her to so readily embrace a straggler at the borders, even a young one, but on this forlorn midnight, Towhee needed him almost as much as he needed her.

She hadn't caught his single word, though she tried to rearrange herself a bit to look into his face as she asked, "What's your name?" She didn't bother signing, partly because their positioning did not allow it but also because she didn't really have the energy for it right now.

Ariel moved to embrace him, sweeping down to his weakened frame and envelope him in warmth. The sterling youngster let himself sag against him, buried his nose among his dark fur and breathed deep the scent of him. Too tired and too broken to acknowledge the alarm bells that this wolf was a stranger and not his late mother, he was content to simply lay there.

When a question came, directed at him in a voice that was foreign to him, the perfect image of Ariel's return to keep him safe melted away. Still, he could not muster the energy or even the will to struggle free and bolt, so he emitted a soft little whimper of defeat.

"Sundance," he answered as he lifted his powder gaze to look sadly upon his guardian's raven features. "Wh...where am I?"

It was difficult to read lips in the dark, though their proximity helped. "Sundance," she saw him say, right before he asked about his whereabouts. Before answering, Towhee looked upward and swept their surroundings with her sharp orange eyes. The night was silent and very still, with no signs of anyone else tarrying nearby.

Gazing back to Sundance, she said, "This is Asterism Grove and my name is Towhee. Can you tell me what happened to you, Sundance? Do you know where your parents are?"

The name of the territory in which Sundance found himself meant nothing to him, for it was not one he'd ever heard before. His ears dropped, as did his expression as he struggled to keep himself from crying, and he lowered his powder blue eyes in defeat.

He sank into Towhee's flank, appreciative of her gentle kindness despite being strangers, and exhaled softly. Elysium was gone, lost to him, likely trapped beneath the fallen willows, and he clung desperately to the possibility that his family had escaped when Sunny presented that opportunity to them.

"The ground shook," he started weakly, voice thick as the floodgates released and a sob racked his fragile frame, "m-more than... than before. The trees started to fall, and I ran."

Sundance crumbled, blinking up with watery blue eyes at the dark she-wolf. "I dont know how t-to get back, or if... if anyone is still there." Silently, his glassy gaze begged: please help me find them.

His slight stammer presented an extra challenge in interpreting Sundance's speech, though Towhee followed most of what he said. She inhaled sharply through her nose when he spoke of trees falling, her orange eyes skirting away again, gazing off toward the woods that comprised the centerpiece of their territory. She swallowed a sigh. There was no safe haven when the earth itself shook.

"Don't worry about that right now," she said to him, her face much gentler than usual, her heartbreak over Fen a shadow behind her eyes and written into the lines of her face. "Let's get you some food and rest, then we'll figure the rest out later." Slowly, Towhee pushed herself away from him, rising slowly herself to her feet. "Can you stand? And walk?"

Beneath the weight of his emotion, Sundance trembled. He whimpered softly, unsure where to go from here and how to even begin the hunt for his mothers or brothers. Although Atwood and Reif's relationship with each other was far stronger than any they shared with him, the thought of a life without them felt hollow.

He tried to curb the tears, bite them back by gritting his teeth, and peered up through the haze of them as his saviour spoke again. Sniffing, he was painfully aware of how ungrateful he likely appeared - all sobs and snot - and despite the overwhelming sorrow he carried, Sundance did his best to offer the most pathetic of smiles. "Thank you," he told her, genuinely appreciative of all she'd done for him this far.

He unfurled, squeezing his big sad eyes shut as he tried to hurry to his paws and felt his tired muscles stiffen, his joints ache. Still, he managed to shakily pull himself together. "I can try," he answered weakly, reaching out tentatively with an alabaster paw.

As he attempted to stand, Towhee did her best to guess his age. He seemed younger than the other pups, though she couldn't be certain, especially in his current state. In any case, he was certainly too large to carry, though she proffered her shoulder in case he needed some extra support to stay on his feet.

"I'm going to take you back to our rendezvous site, drop you off with my brother, @Phox, and my son, @Figment." Her heart panged as she very nearly slipped Fen's name in there. Swallowing, she continued. "Then I'll get something for you to eat. Don't worry about anything else right now, let's just focus on getting you back into better shape."

She tossed him a ghost of a smile through the darkness, then moved slowly toward the grove's center.

Feel free to fade!

He stumbled, but she was right there to support him. Sundance leaned against her offered shoulder, pressed his cheek to the raven fur there, and let himself briefly pretend that her gentle warmth was that of Seabreeze's embrace.

His body craved rest, and so despite the awkwardness of being escorted to a hollow to meet more new faces and the anxiety that came with being in a strange place, Sundance promptly slipped into a much-needed slumber.