Hushed Willows i guess it must be up to me

He is too little to understand the emotion in his mothers' eyes, in the thickness of their voices. While it was clear that something had changed, Sundance couldn't figure out why his third parent would never be coming home to them. He simply had not witnessed what the other children had seen, thus remained blissfully unaware of the horror that tore their family apart.

The silver boy was quiet as he padded alongside his silent siblings through the willows beneath Olive and Seabreeze's solemn watch. There was something uncomfortable about the sorrow they each carried; death, he'd learned, was part of living. So what was there to be so sad about, if all wolves would some day die?

He would miss Ariel, of course. He already did. Sundance hoped that wherever his guardian had gone, he would miss him as well.

When they arrived and settled at the gathering, Sundance sheltered himself alongside Seabreeze to observe those he did not know from between her slender forelimbs. Some talked and sounded sad, but he didn't listen. He merely twitched his curious little nose and looked around, a good boy as his dam had asked of him.