Redtail Rise merlot

The yearling paced along the borders, his tongue lolling from his mouth as the August sunshine draped across his back like a heavy cloak. Soon he planned to fetch a drink, though a sudden intake of breath waylaid this thought. Cambria sprang into the air with a muffled yip, shaking his forepaw and looking down at the two things he’d incidentally crushed: a clover blossom and the poor honeybee which had been feeding from it.

He plopped his hindquarters in the clover patch and held his paw to his mouth, lips peeled back from his teeth to pick the stinger from the leathery pad. After its successful removal, he ran his tongue over the pricked flesh to soothe it, though it froze between his toes at the sound of a voice rising from someplace behind him.

Cambria peered over his shoulder and saw Redd’s figure perhaps a quarter mile away. As soon as he’d gauged the distance, her message hit him like an electric shock. His jaw and paw simultaneously went slack. His heart dropped. Redd was leaving? More importantly, she was taking Ruckus with her?

Well, of course the pup should go with his mother… but Cambria wanted to shout at her to stop. Hadn’t she just returned? Why was she leaving again? He swept to his feet, only to stand still. He had no business demanding answers from her. And as loath as he was to part with Ruckus—the idea of never seeing him again twisted the yearling’s stomach with surprising ferocity—he didn’t imagine either one wanted him to follow.

He remembered the day his mother had left him on the island. Cambria hadn’t really liked her, much less loved her, yet he’d still felt horrible when she had left him behind. He was startled by how similarly he felt now, the dejection and fear forming a lump in his throat, leaving him standing there feeling just as helpless.