Hideaway Strath ceathairéad

The look they shared was not one of joy, but of sorrow, and Hemlock wished that she could reverse the cruel fate of the little snow kissed cub. She tucked the dark cub near her own breast, and it was like a cruel blade to do so. It might have been her children, hers and Palisander's, and the gentle way she touched both pups was as if they were her own. She cleared the nose, pressed against its stomach, she tended to them but nothing she could do would reverse what fate and nature would decree. "In my own litter of four my mother buried three, it is unfair, but it is how nature demands."  Hemlock said quietly as she reached out to nuzzle briefly against the Banrion. "They make the way for their siblings, dear heart, and maybe for their sacrifice it will be easier with the next" she hoped, against all, that it would be - for this eve the fate of the star-crossed young hung just as heavily in the balance.