Heron Lake Plateau On a hill, under a raven sky.

Phox tried to visualize Tegan, but he came up blank. He knew the name, and he remembered that he was Finley’s son, but he could not bring up an image of the Blackthorn. Had he really been away that long? It was sometimes hard to believe it had been almost an entire year since Phox had set foot in the vicinity of his family. He found it completely unbelievable that Titmouse would be alive after all of that, but somehow he had managed. He wondered if perhaps Tegan had been mistaken, but Towhee surely would have grilled him on the subject.

Whatever was going on in Towhee’s head then, Phox did not know. He wondered if she wanted him to offer to go after their brother, but he knew he was not the right wolf for the job. He had literally run away the last time fighting was in the cards, and he did not wish to bring that memory up again. Thankfully, she broke the silence (well, not really) by asking him to come with her. Curious, but hopeful, he nodded and began to follow her to wherever she was leading him. Perhaps it was a memorial for some other death he had missed.

He let his gaze wander upward as he followed, taking note of the constellations he could pick out. Pisces—the fish—and Aquarius—the cloud—were the only two he could make out aside from Taurus. There were other, lesser constellations in the sky, but he did not know them as well. He wished that Sassafras was still around, although he had not smelled her scent here since he had returned. She had been the first to teach him, although Raven had a part in his education as well... not to mention the wolves he had met in his time away.