Dawnlark Plains pocket full of posies

all was chaos. wolves ran past him, pups in their jaws. he made a mental note of each pair as they flew by--fus with radcliffe, shale with padma, sebastian ferrying faye off to sunny. . . but there were still plenty missing, and aditya looked wildly around, searching for the faces he did not see. river, eventide, meadow, timberlake---

the flames rose up around him like pillars of rock; he felt wedged in a narrow canyon, heat and smoke threatening to choke him where he stood. ducking past the tongues of fire, adi left the den site and began to race through the territory, trying desperately to pick out individual scents amidst the all-encompassing stench of a wildfire.

he ran himself ragged after much time searching, and when his searches proved fruitless, he began to head to the maplewood with a heavy heart, hoping to rally the wolves there (and praying that the fire would not touch the forest--again). his golden fur was singed, the whites of his eyes blood-red from the smoke. he found sybella streiter on the way, and together they trotted out of the burning plains.

aditya glanced back, the pain a thick glaze over his hawkish gaze. what was next for them, when home was no longer a home?