Blacktail Deer Plateau iii. time flies

Just when the talk of seasons had lulled Grayday into a sense of security, Dawn struck like a viper in two quick blows. He gaped at her for a moment, but quickly snapped out of it. The questions hadn't caused him any more pain than a dull ache; it simply struck him that he'd not spoken to Dawn about this at all, and that it'd been terribly insensetive of him not to seek her out for this conversation.

"You can talk to me about anything," he assured the girl, moving to bump his nose against her. "I don't ever want you to be afraid to ask me about something, Dawn. There's... I don't mean to have secrets. I don't want to."

That taken care of, he turned his thoughts to the two women that'd left him, thinking many of the same things as Dawn although he, too, did not voice them. "I don't know why your mother left. We were happy, as far as I knew. She loved you two so much... as time goes on, I've started to wonder if something didn't happen to her," he admitted, his throat getting a little tight. "I didn't find any signs of it. Her scent just went on and on... but I've never been able to figure that one out."

"But Khoe..." He paused, not quite sure how to put his feelings into words. "When you went for that rabbit... did you think you could stick the landing?" he asked her, seeming to change the subject.