Redhawk Caldera So you can say letting go is easy

It might have been exhaustion taking its toll, but when Finley tried to reassure her the girl felt a tidal wave of emotion crash into her. She whined with both gratitude and empathy for the mother of the child who had never come home, feeling all at once both better and worse about their respective circumstances. Finley truly seemed as though she had come to terms with what had happened, however, and Sassafras was a natural optimist whose expectations were yet unsullied by experience.

She gave a little nod and blinked up at Finley and her offer to return to the Caldera, but stilled as she processed and accepted the remainder of what was said. “Has something else happened?” she asked tentatively, gazing up from her place at the brown-eyed leader’s feet and extending one of her fore-paws in front. Her heart gave a preemptive clench as she worried about the way Fin’s words broke off and did not immediately go on, but there was no way for her to imagine the weight of what she was about to be told.