Dragoncrest Cliffs Barracuda

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Meerkat was a mess. It was bad enough that Swordfish and Quennell were long overdue, now @Njord was out there searching for the boys. She would’ve insisted on going with him but he hadn’t told her himself, sending a messenger to let her know he was headed further afield. She couldn’t fault him, though neither could she bear being apart from her husband, not after…

She was no guardian, yet she paced the borders all the same. Dried tears streaked her cheeks. Meerkat continually argued with herself about joining the search and was in the throes of a particularly poignant fit of desperation when Ètienne’s quavering howl stopped her in her tracks.

He wasn’t calling for her but the urgency of his summons made her burst into a sprint. And when she arrived, it was any mother’s worst fear realized: her son, sickly and wounded, swayed at the borders, Quennell slumped beside him. Meerkat rushed to them, eyes flitting from the gashes in Fish’s hide to the bloody stump on his companion’s rear.

The noise that came out of her mouth wasn’t so much a howl as a wretched scream for help. Meerkat then pressed in close to Swordfish, nosing him with restraint, sobbing breaths puffing against the fur of his flank where it was torn.