Bramblepoint Dump her on a doorstep

The question was one that Aureli had often asked himself, though not, he realized right then, for a rather long time. He contemplated it now, directing his gaze out across the lake with an unusually ruminative look on his face.

"I doubt they still think of me," he told the boy.

It was his turn to fish. Aureli watched from the sidelines, unconcerned for whatever the outcome might be. The fish he'd caught — still flopping weakly in the grass — was large enough to share, even if it wouldn't be quite filling. As he watched, however, Delos managed to catch a fish with his paw — a feat that the physician would previously have called impossible.

"Well done!" he said, surging in to snag the fish and yank it free of the boy's paw. He gave it a harsh shake to snap the spine, and then trotted over to the other one to compare them in size. The larger fish was pushed toward the growing boy — something that Aureli could not help regretting when Moke poked her head out of brush looking for a snack.

With a little sigh, he bit off the tail and tossed it her way.

"Eat up," he instructed. "Then we'll search for comfrey. It's a very distinctive smell. Perhaps we can make a game of finding it."