Northstar Vale Lemon children! Go forth!

Nightmares were an old enemy of Rian. He felt the sting of their bites, and the wounds they left upon wakening more nights than he could now count. The occurances were so numerous that Rian was certain he'd hardly slept peaceful at all in his first year of life. There was no distinction between the good or bad times anymore, for the only moments that his happiness was certain was before his father vanished and his mother's fire died. They were not a demon he wished upon anyone. Especially those under the care of the Frostfur brothers, or a kid as young as he was when they first started. 

So now, standing before Titmouse, he could feel the tension and fear expressed with every movement of his smaller frame. The flicker of his eyes, the tremble in his quieted voice. Rian's heart ached for him—it jerked sideways and then up into his throat, before bottoming out somewhere in the expanse of the void that still lurked quietly beneath the facade he often wore for the rest of the group.

He swallowed around the tightness constricting his throat and cleared it instead. "It isn't. We don't know why that bear was there..." the eldest Frostfur began only to trail off again. Rian didn't believe, not for a second, that Titmouse was to blame. He hadn't summoned the bear. It could have been any of them caught in it's path—Rian could have wandered off to relieve himself, Rose could have been searching for herbs. But explaining this, especially to a kid who felt the immense weight of his guilt and shame so heavily in this moment, would be difficult. 

So with a twist of his ear and a soft frown, he reached over and attempted to brush his nose across the boy's shoulder. "C'mon," he grunted as he turned back toward the path they'd come up. He recalled passing a snow melt run off on their way up not too far from their camp. A drink, and maybe some privacy to voice his thoughts, could help him. Or maybe the silence would be a better healer. Rian was not well-equipped to decide, but choice was always a good option in the absence of any real solution. "I could use a drink, and some company if you're up for it?" He asked with the best smile he could muster despite how exhausted he was.