Swiftcurrent Creek This isn't funny. Come back!

Thyme confirmed his relation with a question, and despite the gloom that cling to Merrit like a perpetual storm cloud, his smile get an inch brighter, and he did something he hadn’t done in a while: Merrit laughed.

Uncle Merrit. Now there was a title he’d never carried before, and rather than feel odd, there was something quaint and right about it.

“I would like to meet them soon,” he said when Thyme mentioned his sibling - his other niece and nephews - and he gave a slow wag of his tail, only stopping when the inevitable question came from Arlette.

He had learned long ago that she was strong. Though he still wished to shield her from the world, he didn’t try anymore. The world had shown its worst, to both of them.

“Greyback is gone. He passed some time after you left,” Merrit couldn’t remember when, and this felt the softer blow. “But that’s not all. There was an earthquake at Easthollow. Mother was at Stone Circle when the pillars fell. I was too late to save her,” only here did he pause, uncertain how forward to be, until he decided on his sister’s wish. Out with it. “Arlette, mother is dead. Easthollow is no more. Kallik and I are the only ones left.”