Sunspire Mountains and I wonder, still I wonder.

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He couldn't remember how long it had been. Weeks? Months? No, surely not months. But days maybe. Weeks maybe... Everything blurred together for the dark-coated youth since his father had left him. The few things he had learned that fateful day about his mother was enough to make his head spin, even though he still didn't know her name. Dhani hadn't been able to speak it to his poor, scared child; Had only been able to say that he had loved her, that she had given him warmth and happiness. She was the Summer of his life, and she had given him a bright-eyed, cheerful child whom she had affectionately nicknamed Summer for those very reasons.

Leviathan Demonte-Ostrega blinked away the sleep from his tired golden eyes and crept out of the little den he had coveted at the base of the mountains. Nose, ears, eyes..." he repeated in his mind, the mantra Dhani had made certain to tuck safely into his son's memory. Dad never saw the cougar coming, and he never heard him until his nose told his ears to listen... He knew the story by heart. He probably could've told it just as well as Dhani.. How the cougar had come upon he and his mother, Chena had seen it first, they fought it off together, and from that day forward Dhani was a man. Summer was far from a man. Until Mom had died, Dhani had always called him "Little Levi". It wasn't till she had died that he had adopted Mom's nickname for him and started calling him Summer.

Without knowing it, his paws had started on the one path he had grown used to taking in the past couple of days since he'd found the shallow den at the base of the mountain. The trail lead to a little steam where Summer eagerly lapped up huge gulps of water. His eyes darted across the terrain, ears swiveling like mad little radar dishes. Suddenly, he stopped in mid-lap. With his tongue frozen to the surface of the water, his eyes went wide in awe at the treasure he spied across the stream.

With only a moment of hesitation, Summer bounded across the stream in a few great leaps. For a youth of six months, he was rather taller than he had the meat for, so crossing to the other side of the little creek was fairly simple for him. He dug into a thicket of brush between the trees until he laid his teeth upon a smooth tan tine. He tugged with all of his little might until the antler came free of its prison in the branches. Then, without stopping for even a moment, it was back across the creek and straight down the path back to his little den where he dragged it down into the darkness, lined it up against the wall, stood back to admire it, and then burst into tears.

The pathetic little den at the base of the mountain had never more felt like home as when it had a rack of antlers in it, his Dad's favorite treasure. At the same time, Little Levi had never felt more alone.

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