Thunder Dome ambergris

He'd never been brave enough to tell her before, when they were young. Sundance had thought himself damaged back then, irreparable. He'd lost his whole family in one fell swoop, forced from his home by the trembling earth. Then, while he tried to find footing among the Firebirds, he'd lost Dorea.

At the time, Sundance had thought this to be the end. He'd ventured out on his own, strung along by some delicate thread of hope that he might find his kin, only to discover that his mothers had never made it out of the willow forest on that fateful day when the earth quaked. His brothers? Lost, still, and their fate remained unknown.

He'd been through Hell. They both had, in very different ways. Teya had shown him that there could be light again - that she was Summer to his Winter heart. It'd frightened him, the very real and raw way he felt for her.

Be well, she told him, and his silver ears splayed. Was this the end? Sundance blinked rainwater from his eyes. I don't want to lose you again, Teya.