Redtail Rise I wish that I could be like the cool kids

Naturally, Goober was curious about the paternity. "Well," she began without hesitation, "it was an accident. He was my friend, sort of, but we weren't together, so I let him off the hook." She licked her lips. Smash hadn't really given him much of a choice in the matter. Her head bobbed in the next instant. "I am hoping to catch up with him too, though he wasn't in my pack." Hopefully he was around here somewhere, finally settled down in that pack of his that had taken ages to set up shop. "I'd like to tell him about them."

How would Luke react when he found out she'd been pregnant after all? And would she even tell him about Chogan, Toni and Crash? Or would she just let him think he'd had the single son, named for him? It was something she thought about from time to time. But Smash didn't know what she would actually tell him when the time came.

"But on the subject," Smash chatted away as they neared the foot of the rise, "I met someone after my litter was born. He helped me raise them and we eventually tied the knot. He's back home now, keeping an eye on Luke for me. That's my son," she shared, then decided to clarify, "The others—I had four—they didn't make it." She shot him a sideways glance, a sad smile, but then looked ahead, not particularly wanting to linger on this subject.

"Maybe they relocated, after the fire or whatever," she mused aloud in the next breath, slowing to a stop at the bottom of Redtail Rise and again glancing at her impromptu companion. Still no howl had come and Smash knew what that meant: nobody of relevance had been around to hear it.