Redhawk Caldera her hands sticky with fruit

a sick feeling settles in her stomach as the days tick by slowly, like blood beneath a bruise and young peregrine is not found. she drags her grumbling teenager with her — at times literally by his scruff — ghost joining in as their eyes and ears from above as mother and son venture out.

it hits her a little too close to home — though his siblings hadn't went missing. she presumes, without anything else to say otherwise, they were crushed beneath the rocks. rocks that she and tzar had barely escaped themselves : the valley had almost become their grave.

they return to the caldera just as the sun sunk low into the horizon and the shadows stretch greedily towards them. -go, take some meat from the caches. fill your belly and get some rest.- she has to reach up now to place a kiss upon his brow before watching him and ghost disappear deeper into the caldera.

towhee jr lingers at the borders, not yet ready to take her own advice.