Blacktail Deer Plateau you were a petal in the soot-dark breeze

Day allowed his tail to beat the ground twice in tired but heartfelt relief. Things were settled between them, and if he died tomorrow, Grayday would find himself in the Cat's jaws with one less black mark on his spirit. He couldn't help but feel glad, even when Heartha brought up something of a sore point for the male.

"The kids are doing well," he assured her, "but I don't know where Khoe is. She's been... different lately. Colder. I don't think she wants to be with me anymore."

This feeling had been growing in the male ever since that first fight in the den. He could sooner forgive Heartha's transgressions than Khoe's, considering the gravity of his mate's actions. He wondered if she felt similarly about him. Did she look at him with the same unforgivness with which he looked at her?

"I don't know what happened between us," he sighed, knowing, as he spoke, that this was only a partial truth.