Firefly Glen spring in your step

His youth was confirmed by the way he spoke, but Charon barely registered the way he phrased his words as he suddenly realised that he stood facing her son. It was so long that he had not seen her, and Charon was surprised. Oddly, being faced with Eshe's son made him realise how old his own daughters were getting now.

Then came the news of her death and Charon's expression fell visibly. Suddenly asserting dominance did not seem so important when he was confronted not only with the death of his friend and neighbour, but also with the memories of the death of his own parents by the violent claws of bears. A long time he had hated them for it and wished his revenge, but the brute confrontations he had had with them at Moonspear's start had made him reconsider. Not all bears needed to die, for in every battlefield there were casualties on both sides, and it was not worth the further bloodshed on his.

"She's... dead?" he asked, though his words were hardly phrased like a question. The boy's further words were registered barely. Word of a new Alpha brought him little but perhaps derision at the thought someone else had taken what was Eshe's. It didn't even occur to him to introduce himself then, almost as if a son of Eshe's already knew his name just because. He registered the question, however, and he answered after a moment's pause, looking back at the boy: "She's my... We were friends." Cousins, she had called them, but it didn't matter. Some distant relation to parents he had never known. Her warmth and friendliness was what had defined their relationship, not their far-away blood bond. "I was going to visit her now that winter's gone, to tell her of my daughters and to see her..." He looked dumbly at Cypress as he continued, "... see hers."