Sun Mote Copse a stick, a stone; it's the end of the road

It was worse than he thought.

His face morphed from grief, to disbelief, to fury as Towhee spoke. He thought of that pretty, kind girl who'd captured Caracal's heart. Surely she wouldn't. . .?

But she had. And now his brother was dead. Dead!

He was an utter mess.

I. . . Killdeer swallowed down the sob—or was it a growl?—rising again. He swiped a tongue across his jowls. He noticed, then, the seashell, perched neatly atop a stone. -Is that for him?- he asked, half-rhetorically.