Sunset Valley II

Stag didn't need to be a mind-reader to understand the emotions Ego was going through. It was like a tempest; wave after wave -- a wave of grief, a wave of confusion, a wave of anger, a wave of disappointment -- melding into a high sea of despair and dead dreams.

He hung his head in silence.

It was not until Ego spoke of retrieving Simmik that Stag looked up again. His gaze was flinty. "We won't be able to take her away." I already tried. She had grown on someone else's lawn -- and there was no uprooting her.

Even if he agreed, they ought to all be together. That was just not how the world worked. He said little else until Ego began to tiptoe, his voice haltingly delivering a question so absurd that for a moment Stag mentally reconstructed the question, convinced he'd misheard.

"What? No." He answered, incredulous. "We were puppies. It sucked. But that's the way that it goes. We can't point fingers any more than we can move a mountain. Life happens, with or without people in it." Stag's somber gaze traced the distant peak in reflective musing. "I am glad you are back, brother."