Blacktail Deer Plateau the ghosts were howlin' in the late afternoon

The same to you <3

He offered each packmate a greeting in return - to Mordecai, a grateful blink, and to Lasher, a solemn bow of his head. They had run with the pack much longer than he, and the grief he felt could not contend with what he imagined they and the rest of the pack must have felt right now. The Plateau was barely his home, but he would stand by them no matter how weak his connections had been before the flames.

Lasher and Mordecai trekked forward with silence, and Malachi gave them space before closing in the rear. Embers littered the ground in a controlled burn, and he pawed a rain of dirt over a large cluster to smother the flickering remants of the fire's course. If not for the brutal scar the flames had left behind, Malachi could have convinced himself the fire had been a cruel trick of a night terror. He secretly wished he could, but what they faced was real, and no amount of mental persuasion could separate him from this reality. He kept careful watch on his companions ahead, half expecting the embers to lick them away at any moment, and darted his eyes to scour left and right for any motion between the trees. In time they would see if their lost had survived, or if they had indeed succumbed to the wild death they had been powerless to stop.