Heron Lake Plateau j'ai toujours vécu ici pourtan

Time passed so quickly when one dared to glance away for a second. In just the mere blink of an eye, winter transitioned to spring and charged recklessly into summer, faces both strange and familiar came and went from the fold of her pack, and children grew up. Oh, but that was the greatest crime of all: to blink while one’s children were small! Look away but a second — just a second! — and they were suddenly grown up and didn’t need their parents anymore.

No theft would ever sting more than that committed on her by the passage of time where her little ones were concerned. Long would she regret the days she had wished they’d hurry and grow up already, for now she looked back on those days with wishful fondness and found she missed them terribly. She loved motherhood and every time she looked at her children, nearly yearlings now, she felt it slip a little further away.

She felt that familiar pang as she looked at her daughter now, beautiful and lean and sleek as liquid shadow. She grinned at Phoebe as she approached, tail waving and love written in every line of her face. ”Hey, baby girl,” she greeted warmly, very much aware that her baby wasn’t actually a baby anymore — but not caring. In her heart, they’d always be her babies.