Blacktail Deer Plateau cicadas

By the sounds of things, everyone was getting along. To hear Phox speak of the family as if they were a part of it made Mou suddenly focus upon him, briefly coherent rather than bereaved for the coming end to everything.

It did hurt, though. Thinking of Vesper growing up without him there, of Blueberry raised as a Redhawk without her true mother, of his father's namesake becoming as mighty as the stories of the original Peregrine, which had once been taught to Mou and Phox when they were very small themselves - a lifetime ago, more than that maybe.

And he would miss it all.

But they would grow up to be better than him; better for their connections to the Redhawks, rather than the cursed ghosts who tried so hard to find love in all the wrong places, who haunted the living even now.

Mou looked to the woman-shape next, hearing the empty words Maegi's doppleganger spoke, and nodded in silent acceptance. He would make sure they had no other choice. It was for the greater good — and history had shown that Mou wasn't included within that realm.