Redtail Rise Enter, pursued by a memory.

When @Tux asked that he accompany him on a trip beyond the territory borders, Dacio wanted to refuse. He'd always been a homebody, too much of a mama's boy to stray too far from Portia's careful watch. Those past few days following the unexpected disruption of their pack and family, he'd seen nothing of her. It wasn't that he didn't want to, that he didn't try, but she seemed to have secluded herself entirely. His most recent check-in at all her usual haunts just that morning struck his heart with a whole new fear, as her scent had begun to grow stale.

"I don't think she's coming back," the young Gona confessed after a long, uncomfortably silent pause during which he encouraged himself to admit his worries out loud. He hung his head, dark ears splayed back as he exhaled a sigh, reflecting on the last time he spent in her company. Dacio had turned away from her then, so overwhelmed by the hurt and frustration his litter-mate had caused, and hated himself for not taking care of her as he should have.

Blinking, he lifted his solemn eyes from staring at the shape of his cousin's pawprints in the snow, and realised that Tux probably didn't know what he was talking about. He swallowed the guilt, for he realised he had no clue if the bi-coloured Kru had previously said something that he'd been unable to hear over his own troubled thoughts. "Sorry," he added, "my, uh... my mother. I haven't seen her since..." He hunched his shoulders and pressed on, frowning deeply to himself as he peered ahead at the mountain that loomed before them.