Cedar Sweep we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there

She can follow him, if she would! Otherwise, away he goes! :)

He of course didn’t know what Swordfish—or anyone else, for that matter—looked like. But Skipjack pondered what he’d overheard about his wayward elder brother. Evidently he looked a lot like him.

He looks like me, I think, the little lad chirped.

Was there anything else he could tell her to expedite the recovery of his missing sibling? Skip pondered that for a moment. Auburn had mentioned she would keep an eye out, which he understood to mean she would report it if Swordfish happened across her path somehow.

Okay, well, I gotta keep going, he said after a moment, drawing in a deep breath and trapping it in his chest. See ya’ later, Auburn, the Bairn added, using a familiar phrase without realizing some might find it “punny.”

He stepped away from her, performing a quick assessment to orient himself in his surroundings. With the same great care as before, Skipjack then began trundling deeper into Cedar Sweep.