Sun Mote Copse worry never dies

Winter was here and that was a worrying thought in his state, but at least it seemed that the prey returned. It would be a tough one, but he had been through a tough one before and he would make it through this one, Eljay was certain. He just needed to hang on - for Weejay, if nothing else.

Eljay felt relieved when he found Towhee at first, but when she greeted him he felt a nervous wrench in his gut. Hey. The effect she had on him had not changed over time. She was still terrifying; not in a directly threatening or harmful way, but in the way that she was so different than he. That she was strong and that everything about her emphasised how weak he was, and most of all, how weak and incompetent she thought him to be. How strange that he was above her in rank, technically, but Eljay knew -- and he knew that she must know it, too -- that rank would not matter at all if she did decide to tower over him in any way.

Me too, he said when she said she'd been looking for him. Where's Elfie? He didn't mean to sound demanding when he posed the question, but somehow it came out that way. Elfie wasn't here, that much was clear, but Towhee must know, as his former leader, where he'd gone. Eljay irrationally felt that if she had been good enough to be his leader and guardian after he left home, then she must have made sure he was okay and must have taken him here, somehow, even despite the state in which she'd got here.