Bearclaw Valley here without you

An ear turned back towards her child as she approached, and a meagre smile was forced to Laurel's face. It was hard to look upon Piper, not because she did not like her daughter but because the look on Piper's face mirrored in so many ways the heart-wrenching feelings that terrorised Laurel's own mind. She forced those feelings away for a moment to broaden her smile, but it felt artificial and fake. Laurel had often used fake feelings to try and manipulate others in the past, but now that she had real, genuine, own feelings she was once more confronted with the fact that she could not hide those as easily as she could make up non-existent ones.

"Hey, sweetie," said Laurel and she arched her neck to gently nose Piper's cheek. She wasn't one to ask 'are you okay' to any of the children in regards to Lucas' disappearance, because she knew that the answer would be a variety of 'no, of course not' or a lie. She wasn't ready to face either. She was so muchly not ready to face either that if anyone else would ask such questions Laurel would casually happen to be somewhere else. Even when they would ask Laurel how she was holding up she would find some sort of distraction -- "oh look, there's still some flowers left" or "wow, the leaves are falling already, look at that pile over there" -- to avert the question.

Instead she lingered in silence for a moment, her face betraying her every emotion. "Do you want to look for shiny rocks in the water?" asked Laurel. A favourite activity of her own when she was little. A favourite activity she had passed down to Lucas, to adventure and treasure hunt.