Wapun Meadow But he left it in the bag with the tag still on

She was right to worry what would become of him, perhaps. He didn't know it now, but he belonged to a broken family unlike other families, and his mom had belonged to a broken family, and her mom before her. There was a long line of heartbreak and mistrust in the Redleaf family and Lucas was bound to one day inherit it, too. Perhaps it would come in the realization that his father was a deadbeat who never visited; perhaps it would come upon realizing his brother's sourness was inherited from somewhere. Perhaps it would come when stories of grandma and grandpa were never filled with fondness. Maybe he would only find it when he had little ones of his own, or a mate to disappoint.

However it came to be, Reigi was right to worry, but Lucas had no such concerns. He didn't know his family history, he didn't know heartbreak, and he didn't know the struggles of his mom or his aunt or Reigi herself in dealing with them. He knew only his own world, where aunt Indra was tonnes of fun, mama was wonderful and caring, and Reigi was a sweet friend who found him in the flowers.

"Oooh!" he exclaimed when she shared all of her names—she had a lot! She even offered to let him come up with a name for her, and he giggled and wiggled in place. "Only if you names me too!" he declared, and then trapped his tongue between his front teeth while he consulted an imaginary list in his head. He ticked off names as he went, deciding they were too cliche, or too vogue, or too downright self-important.

Finally he found the best name of all and proudly announced it with the slightest puff of his chest: "Dancer!" Nothing was better than dancing, so Dancer was an awesome name to have. He wished it could be his name, but evidently, you had to be given names by others. He did a little spin in place, a bit of a wolfish pirouette if you would, and then said, "Unnersee, okay, we'll all come someday! Pink-toe promise!" A lofty promise indeed, but Lucas never broke a promise.