Hushed Willows loads;liquids;neon;heater;jaws;jungle;mains;signal;

As Ephraim stood there, suspended on the tips of his toes and scarcely daring to breathe, Cam began to stutter the same word over and over and over. His tall ears swept forward to hear, but no comprehension came. It was either another language or a name, and with no means to tell which, Ephraim merely faltered until the cub turned his head and said something else.

Uh, repeated Ephraim, who was very much at a loss for how to treat small children. Had he ever been so little? (Smaller, in fact). What had he been like back then? How had the adults treated him? (Harshly; his family was far from the kind, warm folks of Elysium when he was a babe). Cam, Cam, Cam? God, he felt stupid. He wondered if this was what it was like for wolves who didn't know Trigedasleng to be interrogated by Dragedans in their mother tongue.

Where's your mom? he tried, peering over the youth's head for some sign of... anyone, really. Anyone at all would know what to do with a baby better than Ephraim did.