Lost Creek Hollow i came looking for you

as frustrating as parenting (and child-caring) could be, indra watched with fondness as wyatt rose -- he looked as if he would do his bother's bidding, but indra somehow knew he also might not. he was, after all, a willful thing -- as any child his age would be.

laurel had already ventured past and demurely the redleaf followed her. she was happy to be like this again; her and her sister, walking in a shapeless world only vaguely familiar. throughout all of it there was always laurel. and would always be laurel, indra reminded herself tiredly.

she hoped that laurel had no regrets about moving here. stigmata's spitting words still circled vehement as frenzied sharks in indra's mind: oh god, had she been that selfish?

her gaze flickered to laurel as if looking quietly for validation -- but somehow being next to her stronger sister, indra forgot she even needed any. stigmata and his thorned words, which had buried themselves deep in her tender sides, suddenly dematerialized. her demons, for the day at least, had fled.

she didn't mind the suggestion to look for piper - truth be told, it had worried indra that they had yet to hear from tadec. while the two of them were inarguably safer than just one of them alone, indra felt troubled by the silence on the line. when were they coming home?

few times now she had doubled to bearclaw to cleanly and clearly reinvest in the scent trail she had left (and also to check if they had returned) -- but bearclaw had been as empty as they had left it, that long distant month ago.

"i worry for them," she murmured, knowing laurel did too: "but i went to bearclaw twice and left some obvious markers in case they returned."