Hideaway Strath To the bone.

Ever since Towhee's flight, Elfie returned to the blocked passage often. The scent trail of his aunt faded as more time passed, and he wondered, whether she had made over and gone to his family and told the story. Or had she fallen and died there, leaving her pack entirely on their own.

Time flows differently, when you are trapped and have nothing else to do, but to wait and hope that something miraculous is going to happen and solve everything. The boy had begun to lose weight, because the food was becoming scarce, and hunger is no good companion, when you anticipate something.

So - on the day, when Towhee's dark form appeared at the top of the pile again and he heard her shaky howl, it felt as if weeks had passed since their last meeting. "Towhee!" he called out to her, his tail wagging madly. From his viewpoint he could not see, how badly battered and injured she was. All that mattered was that she was alive. And here.