Blacktail Deer Plateau mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?

she was cream, not brown--but it could have just been her ghostly form. and her voice was different, too. not the heavily-accented, melodious sound of his youth. but it could have been his mind playing tricks on him. this was his mother. her touch was the same. her kind eyes, the same.

then dawn entered the den, and fear quickly replaced the comfort that had risen up at his mother's presence. his stomach rolled, and he choked back bile, panicked and sickened. "dawn!" his voice was a hoarse whisper, ragged from coughing. "why are you here? no. . ."

he broke down into anxious gasps, terror seizing him from nape to tail-tip. he turned his watery gaze upon his mother, longing once more for her warmth. "nahin, maa! use bhi nahin! main," he implored desperately. "sirf main."

adi rolled his head back to look at dawn, pelt bristling. "mera pyaar, he murmured. "i can't take you with me. you must live. . .and i must go. my mother has come." one narrowed eye surveyed the ghost as she spoke; he hadn't heard a word she had said, lost in his own confusion.