Lost Creek Hollow Nemo Sine Vitio Est

It was a warm afternoon in early spring and Sarah had just returned from a hunt to see, whether Osprey needed assistance in managing the three grey-pelted little sharks. With the birth of Jupiter, Janus and Junona her mother had resigned from leading duties entirely and spent her days, entertaining and educating the kids. More of the former than the latter, even though the bunch was almost three months old now. 

"Let me gooooo!" Sarah was greeted with Jupiter's loud protests, as her mom had grasped the biggest girl of the litter by the scruff and pinned her down. The playful glint in her eyes told that this was for play purposes only, because the other two were watching the show gleefully. "And this is, how you slay a dragon," Osprey said, after she had let her daughter go, who walked away with an air of insulted princess, followed by the merry laughter of her siblings.

She smiled at Sarah and came to greet her affectionatelly, then sat down next to her, watching the trio chase each other for a while and then said: "You know, your father is a greedy rascal." Sarah, who was used to her mother's whimsical ways turned to look at her: "Why so?" "Out of you nine only two resemble me, the rest of you take after him. And I thought that we were supposed to share everything equally..." she chuckled and leaned against Sarah...

Mere moments after waking from the dream, Sarah could still feel the warmth of the sunlight against her skin, her mother's touch and the jolly voices of her youngest siblings. She tried to keep hold of the dream just a while longer, but as the cold and snow reality of a night in January seeped more and more in, the images grew transparent and disappeared altogether. She opened her eyes and looked at the dark earthen walls of her den and knowing well that it would be a while now, before she would be able to fall asleep again, she crawled outside.

It was like this every night, ever since Terance had let her stay with his group. She would fall into a restless sleep, have nightmares about smoke, fire and dead people haunting her and would wake up soon after. Scared and with immense sadness filling her heart and every fibre of her body. She had lost her home for many months now and she had not been able to give up on it. To move on and accept that "before" was gone and done for and "after" was something to live with. 

Perhaps, having a happy dream, a memory really for a change, was a good thing. Sarah inhaled and exhaled deeply, listened to the silence of the night with closed eyes, recalling and memorizing every detail, hoping that this was not going to be the last one. After this, while deep in thought she set out for a walk through the hollow.