Stavanger Bay I barely dreamt her yesterday

‘Mac nearly stopped dead in his tracks at the name that came from Raindrop’s lips.

“Valiant? Valiant Morningside?” He asked, an almost dumbfounded look crossing his face, “I’m friends with his sister, Minnow. She’s an amazing person! And their aunt, Ishara, or Easy as I call her, is my best friend… Well, she’s more of my adoptive mother at this point. Easy’s son, Dutch, is a good friend of mine as well.”

It amazed Sumac how small of a world it truly was. 

He squirreled away the name “Heph” into his memory. 

As fate would have it, they were just passing the edge of a massive coniferous forest - the Sentinels, though ‘Mac did not know their name - as the topic of his family came up. This forest wouldn’t have warranted much more than a passing glance, except for one distinct detail: it showed distinctive signs of having burned.

The male stopped dead in his tracks and stared long and hard at the tree line, his eyes taking in the charred black trunks in amongst the gangly, hardy survivors and sparse new growth. His jaw was slack, liquid golden eyes wide.

“Sorry… Can we just… pause for a minute?” He asked Raindrop over his shoulder before slowly approaching the edge of the forest. His steps were slow, silent, cautious, as if he was creeping up on some unknown slumbering giant. When he finally reached the closest of the skeletal remains of a sequoia, he stopped and simply stared. 

They’re burning… burning…

He shook his head vigorously.

“My family, Raindrop… They’re like this tree. They burned. All of them,” he stopped and turned to face her, his face blank in an unnatural way, “I-I couldn’t save them. The flames… They were everywhere. All of them-“ he stopped and turned back to the forest’s edge. “I couldn’t save them.”

‘Mac could feel the flashback starting, beginning to consume him in an inferno of panic and despair, until his golden eyes fell upon a living tree. His head tilted.

“I am like this one… I survived…” he said slowly, as if something was registering in his mind. His gaze then fell upon the emerging saplings, sprouting vigorously from the wreckage of their fallen kin. So young, so vital. Renewal.

“And these saplings…” he stated. Suddenly, he turned around to fully face her, his posture transformed. He stood with an unexpected confidence as a passing breeze rippled through his ebony fur. Determination shone in his eyes.

“Raindrop, I know what my heart wants. I want to see my family thrive again, like these new trees. I want to start my own, and… a-and I want you to be part of that story. Will you… Will you join me?”