Hushed Willows oh, the earth fueled the flame

"It came with a price," he commented quietly, when Tavi opted to say that they had done an amazing feat of management. Mordecai did not think of it that way, at least not now. How on earth they had managed to survive as individuals was something, and it was often a wonder to him how they had not lost any of their children to one thing or another. Perhaps thankfully, when the cougar had picked them off at their borders, it had not come inside to pluck at their oblivious young. Memory certainly knew what it had made off with.

"But, I understand what you're saying. You're making sense," he said with a quirky smile. "Everything we've done, or I suppose we do in the future, it's for them. It's the way things have to be, otherwise I'd reckon we wouldn't have them in the first place." He certainly hadn't gone into things blind. He may not have had an entire grip on what it meant to be a parent, but his children were growing and learning all the same. Some things they took to like a fish in water and other things, well, time would tell.

He paused for a moment, only to add: "We'll get through this, one way or another."