Bearclaw Valley here without you

This took forever... I'm sorry. This month was moving month but I'm finally in my new place so replies should be much more prompt.

The young Redleaf girl did what she could to keep her mother's mind off of Lucas. It didn't help that she was mentioning him all the time. To Piper, Lucas wasn't gone... he just wasn't there with them anymore. It might have been that she was too young to understand the premise of death, and the thoughts of what had happened to her brother, but she still imagined that there would come a time when he would trot over the hill and greet them with twinkling eyes and a crinkly smile.

A bright stone caught her attention, and Piper dove her head beneath the water and snatched at it with her teeth, taking in a small mouthful of sand. Once she pulled her crown back up, she looked toward where her mother was and smiled brightly. The young girl's tail flagged behind her as she moved toward the shore and placed the bright blue rock on the edge of the water.

“This one's pretty, ma,” she said softly, making sure that it did not get close enough to get swept away again.