Wheeling Gull Isle four in the morning

"Oh," said Moorhen, looking between her two protectors. "Um," she said carefully, coming to sandwich the Shadow between her lamb and her mate. She didn't know what it was like to have family leave. Not really, at least. Her father and siblings had left when she was young, and -

belatedly, she remembered that day on the beach, when Julep and Isengrim had gone one way, Doe's Shadow in another, and she had been left alone in the sand. For a moment, she wanted to fold down like the seashell she had been that day, but instead she leaned a little closer, and the moment passed.

"I im here," she said at last, nuzzling the Shadow's cheek. "And Stock."