Redsand Canyon Your kisses are poison and all your words are treason

MOM!!!

The cry echoed off the rocks of the canyon, bounced into the air to be heard by whoever-be-damned as the boy-almost-man loped up the slopes, paws skittering rocks behind him.

Oh, he had missed her.

He bypassed Kallik and Germanicus—ooooops, he was supposed to be on patrol; he'd explain himself later—and Phox and Figment and—

Mom, he murmured, burying his snout into her ruff with careless abandon. He snuffled a little, then pulled back, grinning. What are you doing here? Are you coming to stay?! Is my Dad around? What's going on?

Almost everyone he loved was in this spot, right now, and he was in heaven.

Could it get better?