Swiftcurrent Creek Hey December, guess I'm feeling unmoored.

Viinturuth had found himself withdrawing in recent days, feeling as though he was struggling to keep his head above water. Things hadn't been easy since his reunion with Akavir. He sat alone at the river's edge, grey-white furs windswept, reflecting on recent happenings, and allowed himself a time to wallow in the unfairness of it all.

Grey clouds gathered overhead with the promise of rain to come, and his thoughts turned to gentler times when he and Akavir resided in the vale. It was there he'd watched his nieces grow and learn, where he'd willingly stood watch over his young kin - and recognised the intensity of feeling for his brother's mate. He remembered how deeply he'd wished to explore it and how light she'd made his heart, until ultimately he turned away to protect what Akavir had built for himself.

It still pained him to think of those days and the way they'd changed him, the way they'd damaged his littermate. Viinturuth breathed a sigh and lowered to his belly, propping his chin atop a rugged forelimb, as dark eyes swept lazily over the frothing edges of the creek.

More and more, Mae thought about leaving Swiftcurrent Creek. She thought about setting off on her own, seeing the valley, seeing the world. Akavir always seemed to place his attention elsewhere, and Arric had been distracted lately, too. Her brothers were so scarce that she hardly knew if they were even around anymore.

So what did that leave her?

A pack filled with strangers. She happened to cross the trail of one of the newest, unaware of their true relation, and nearly turned away — but something stopped her. Instead Mae continued on her path until she was passing by the pale wolf lying at the water's edge. When she was about to pass him, she hesitated; lingering, studying him. After a moment, she snorted. He seemed familiar somehow, though she'd never seen him before. And that struck her as odd.

She was a skinny and long-legged thing, the youth who trod along toward him. Viinturuth shifted his head to regard her with lazy curiosity, the pallid furs of his cheek ruffled against an elbow. His brother's brood were hardly babes but not quite yearlings, he'd learned. His was the only litter born to Swiftcurrent in the Springtime, he recalled from his brother's update, and there'd been only one girl among them.

You must be Mae, the white wolf observed, raising his head to shoot the adolescent a tentative smile. Her wild obsidian pelage and sterling gaze were reminiscent of her aunt Talos, and Viinturuth felt an immediate fondness as he wondered if Mae might compare to his sister in more ways than her palette.

He rose his head, keen to shed the weight of his woes and make an effort to start off right with Mae. My name's Viinturuth. Your dad and I are brothers.

Viinturuth. He seemed too pale, too vastly different from Mae and all the wolves she knew to be family, for his words to be true. But why would he lie? So she only nodded at first, still studying him in the same way he was studying her.

He was her uncle, like Arric, but that didn't feel quite right. She knew Arric; she loved him. And this man? He was nothing but a stranger to her, a stranger who knew her name and knew her father better than she ever would.

He told you about me? Did he tell you about how he's never here, too? Or how when he is here, he only ever talks to the boys? Mae was surprised by the venom in her own voice, surprised that she'd said these things at all. She sucked in a sharp breath as tears began to well in her eyes, and looked away. Akavir hadn't spoken to her in so long; he hadn't even checked on her after everything with Moss. But he'd been with Eshe, she knew, having come across their twined scents more than once.

Maybe he just didn't want a daughter anymore.