Sun Mote Copse Let this moment be the first chapter: where you decide to stay

Niamh frowned, still disappointed and hurt that Nellie would rather allow her own mother to believe that she might have been dead or kidnapped, than chance being found and dragged home by her clingy mother. At least, that was how Niamh read the situation, and it stung that her daughter would do something that she perceived as being so selfish, especially in the wake of her father's death. It irked her, and she could feel her cheeks becoming warm with frustration. Niamh knew that now was the time to use tact, and to conceal her true feelings- she couldn't afford to hurt her daughter and scare her away- but Naimh never was very good at keeping her true thoughts and feelings at bay. 

"I don't know. And neither do you." She stated. "But rather than chancing it, you let me believe you were dead. Like your father." She said. She intended for the comment to sting, the same way she'd felt slighted by her daughter's decision. "How bad would it have been for you, if I had come looking?" She asked, her throat suddenly warm, her voice deepening- not with anger, but with hurt. "I promise you, kid, it wouldn't have been as bad as I felt thinking you were dead. Or as bad as I feel now, knowing you'd rather I- and Bronco- that we thought you were dead than that we tried to bring you back to keep you with us." She said. Hot tears lined her golden eyelashes. She wiped her muzzle on her foreleg. 

A flash of brown caught her attention, even though she saw it only from the corner of her tear-blurred eye. She knew who it was. "Your brother's coming...Let's just...Talk about that later," She said, at least wanting to spare her son from the hurt that Nellie had just inflicted. She drew in a breath and barked for Bronco, who had begun to bolt toward them. "Better brace yourself," She admitted with a wan, but wry smile, and purposefully stepped to the side to allow Bronco to fly straight toward his sister.