Phoenix Maplewood will I find you when the night is over?

post-Timmy is fine!

her touch startled him; he may have flinched slightly, imperceptibly, but his mind was so far removed from his body that it was the former more affected than the latter. he couldn't remember the last time she had touched him. there had been such an emotional canyon between them, this past moon--and it felt bridged somewhat, now, in the wake of this crisis.

adi nodded. "you should go to easthollow," he said, voice low and hoarse. "they'll have seen the smoke by now, i think. i will lead the hunts--" he thought, suddenly, of shale. the hunter's absence was conspicuous, especially when dawn, and not the boy's father, came back with timberlake. he feared the worst, and he knew dawn likely did, too.

"your uncle," he rasped, "is among the missing. sunny and i will step up in his absence." and as for the near future. . . "i think, if the flames stay clear of the trees, that this will be our new home. do you agree?"

it had been a long time coming. the maplewood had been home to aditya since he'd first set foot here. but they'd had grayday to think about, first, and by the time he had died, everyone slowly got used to the plains. now, with their old territory ablaze, it would seem that they had no choice. morningside must sleep somewhere else. . .why not under the familiar boughs of these woods?