Sun Mote Copse long time the manxome foe he sought

She slowed to a stop beside the first Sovereign's resting place, expressionless black eyes taking in the wilted bouquet scattered haphazardly across it now, thanks to the elements. Her jaw tightened as she turned to the newly churned earth nearby, stepping up to the fresh grave quite slowly. She lowered her head and deposited the single coastal tidytip over top her uncle's buried corpse. Sugar's head remained bowed a moment before she stepped back and hastened toward the riverbank.

Anguish had spread through the pack like wildfire since Colt's death. Sugar sensed they were in a time of great turmoil, though she hardly understood it, just like she only barely grasped the permanence of Uncle Colt's death. "He went to sleep and he's not going to wake up," someone had explained. "Not ever?" "No," came the quiet reply, "never." Those words rolled around in her head now as she seated herself at the water's edge.

She remembered, too, talking to Colt shortly after the attack. She had wanted to help him. But nobody had been able to help him, in the end. "He can't feel pain anymore," she had also been told. Sugar's lips pursed. She glanced over her shoulder, spotted the splash of color against the dirt, then faced forward again. She knew the loss was grave, particularly to her parents, and Sugar wished she could have done something to help him.

But Colt was sleeping the painless sleep of death now. The ones who needed her help were back at the rendezvous site. Licking her lips, the growing pup rose back onto all fours and began to make her way back there, in case there was anything she could do. On her way, she plucked two golden bells: one for @Finley and one for @Elwood.

Title from "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.