Noctisardor Bypass bedauert

Only two. Wylla already knew that Takiyok and Taikon were sent from the pack following her departure with Stag, but she assumed the others would still be here. There had been a newcomer, she recalled, and Star and Marble. Loyalists, she once thought, but only to Mahler. Never to her.

Now there was Phaedra, Mahler, Calcifer, and Astraeus. She grimaced. Star...? The woman was not young, and half a year or more had passed since last Wylla saw her. Star's death seemed the likeliest thing. Thade? she wondered next, unable to keep a slight waver from her tone.

Their boy had always been unsettled, ever since being taken; a wanderer who never quite fit in. It made her heart hurt to think he might still be wandering.

Mahler, she said, using her free leg to push the remains of the haunch forward. You take this. I'm not very hungry. She hoped her appetite would return soon, but until then, the thought of food made her queasy. So, too, did the unsaid apologies and wishes whirling around in her head.

What were you doing in the mountains? How did you find me?