Blackfeather Woods you are only coming through in waves

Are you ok?

He came quickly, obediently, to her summons. Almost as if the roles were reversed once more— But this was Rowan's forest now, and she was only a visitor. Passing through. It had to be this way.

Your mother was one of my very first friends, Maegi said, letting the question slip away. The answer was clear enough; she wasn't okay, didn't look okay. But she soon could be again. She came to the pack when I was a child. She watched over my brothers and me when the Redhawks brought war to our borders.

She turned her cheek to the young man, already feeling his gaze singe the twisted, ugly skin there. She saved my life. She fought off the monster that did this to me, allowing me to escape. 

Maegi owed Moonshadow, and always would. And that debt, in her mind, included Rowan and his siblings by default.

You do her proud, the spectre murmured, smiling. You do this forest proud, Rowan. I'm glad you've returned.

Out with it, Maegi. She had never been one to stall the inevitable—but she was feeling sentimental.