Sun Mote Copse i wanna be the very best

Charon easily joined in the wistfulness of missing Osprey. It was a long time ago that he had last seen her, but he still often thought of his good old friend and hoped she was well. She'd been like a fun aunt kind of person to his life, even though when he was little he of course considered her an equal friend despite his young age. Charon easily decided that he liked Maia. She was like Osprey on speed or something -- just as friendly, goofy and creative (well, he had no actual proof for the latter, but whatever), except also very cheerful and optimistic. A quality that he felt he needed in his life right now, when many of his friends had left him and a lot of his family was great, but not in any way cheerful or goofy.

Anyway, she went on to say that it was sometimes easier to be friends when you weren't pack mates, and he wondered about that. Most of Charon's friends had been pack mates through his life, really, and those that weren't had been good friends but they had left or died, like Fitz and Eshe.. and Osprey. Hmm, maybe, he said thoughtfully, never having considered that. Maybe things'd be different if he would see Wraen now, he wasn't so sure. She had apparently left Terance, Rannoch and Liffey, after all.

Maia was interested in what sort of things they used to do. When we first met I was very little. I loved the stories and we often play-pretended adventures, like meeting trolls and dragons and stuff. You must know what that's like, growing up with Osprey as a mother. He paused briefly as he thought of what they did when he was older. He remembered feeling too old for imaginary friends and fairytale stories at some point. He also remembered the time he had visited Osprey, the last time, when she had told him that she would leave the valley, when Sarah, Wraen and Terance were but little pups. As I got older we mostly talked about our lives, visited each other, looked out for each other. I promised her that her children would always be welcome at my pack, that I'd offer them a home if they asked. Charon smiled as he thought of that moment. It was bittersweet. Osprey had left and that was sad, but it was such a nice thing that she would ask him for such a big favour -- it had shown how much she trusted him. He wondered what she would think now, considering the situation. Did she consider the trust broken, or did she understand? Would she secretly hope he'd make up with Wraen or to see her daughter once more live on Moonspear's slopes? He supposed he'd never know.

But he was curious about something else. How is Osprey? Charon had often contemplated asking for directions and visiting his friend, though she lived too far away for his duties on the mountain to allow it. This was his only gateway. The last news he had of her was years-old from Wraen, when she'd first come into these wilds.