Redhawk Caldera Rats and children follow me out of town

Lagan's cries for attention were absently responded to by his father; Elwood delivered a gentle boop to his forehead, though he didn't really realize that was what the boy had wanted. His motions were distracted and his gaze was trained on Whip -- the question the boy had just blurted out was loaded, and as he quietly soothed Lagan, he was really stalling and searching his mind for an answer.

Faced with the reality of his own son's mental state, Elwood felt as though someone had just slapped him. He and Finley knew that there was a problem and had addressed it at length, but now it was going so far as to affect Whip -- and maybe even the other boys. Curling a forepaw around Lagan's chest as the pup gave a squeak, he finally began to force out a response to Whip's demand.

"Well, he doesn't actually see Peter," he tried to explain, speaking slowly as he processed the situation himself. "He just misses him a lot, like you do, but he...pretends that he's there, sometimes. But Peter's still gone," he said, looking Whip in the eye as he tried to gauge the youth's reaction.