Serpent Lake have you tried turning it off and on again?

momentarily, lasher joined kero on the bank, though he sat upright in the sun and began to lick the water droplets from his fur thoughtfully. "hmm," he fluted to the red wolf's inquiry. "i have been told such before, and i do love to spin yarns," he chortled with a merry look. "do you like to hear stories, kero?"

without waiting for an answer, lasher relaxed himself and lapsed into remembrances, surfacing with an anecdote. "pray do not think me vain, but i was told by my mother upon her deathbed that i am the son of a king, a man of the glen in which i was born. donnelaith." a bitterness flickered in his eyes. "i was not the son of her husband, a king in his own right, and for this he feared me, and cast me as a youngster into the wild, to fend for myself. but so tiny was my body, so weak my limbs, so cold the air of pre-winter, that i had not a scarce chance of living."

"and yet! no sooner than i had begun to cry out for my mother, i was found, swept up by a pack of odd creatures. to this day i know not their species, nor their name, only that they nourished me, lavished me with love; one of their females fed me even from her very breast. and thus i grew strong, though i entertained no cliche thoughts of killing the king who had so cruelly threw me off, for i knew not even his name. my mother i did miss; even now her visage grows dim in my mind's eye, but i remember the smiling curve of her mouth, the way that she touched me in tenderness."

"i was not to return unto her, but i would meet suzanne in my youth, the first of my witches. oh, suzanne!" taltos breathed, before memories drew him away and he grew quite silent.