Ravenshook Cliffs slipping down, down, down

I do, said Govinda, eliciting a smile from his young audience, but then, not my family. In a way that was sad to hear. What made it sad when Lucas himself was also without his family and didn't outwardly seem to mind too much? He couldn't say. It was a compassionate reaction to finding someone in less-than-ideal circumstances that were just ordinary to him. Even so, in the dark of night, when he was alone and the wind was howling, Lucas missed his mother and his siblings so deeply that he curled around himself just to feel secure.

Maybe that was why his face fell then and his eyes shone with some sort of pained camaraderie. The allure of a free life where he made his own choices was incredibly powerful, though, even more powerful than his love for his family. A life of his own making was what he desired most. That was the thing about Lucas, what he'd learned as part of the troupe. He was sweet as pie, friendly as could be, more outgoing than most, but the juvenile was a free bird whose wings couldn't be clipped, not by his mother or his siblings or his aunt or anyone else.

It was Govinda's sentiment, that family was found and not just inherited through blood, that really got through to the boy. He wouldn't trade his family for the world, but he felt similarly about the Kincardine wolves—kidnappers or not, they were also his family. Conversely, Xan was his blood relative but not counted among his true family. "I guess so, if you'd have me," said Lucas, his expression morphing into curiosity and interest while his tail picked up its beat. "You have a pack there? What's a coconut grove anyway?"