Redhawk Caldera Sky Riser

Peregrine’s fate would remain a mystery into perpetuity, much like Maxim’s. She thought about both her long-lost mate and her more recently wayward son as she stood at the top of the hillock over the Hobbit Hole. Marmot’s little bones rested somewhere beneath her feet; if only she could bury his brother beside him. Overhead, the bare branches of the dogwood tree stretched against a whitewashed sky. Towhee often felt morose these days, those today was glummer than most. She let out a long, windy sigh.

Eventually, she turned to look up the nearby slope and began walking in that direction. She crested the ridge line and peered outward first before Towhee’s orange eyes dropped to the caldera’s foot. She started slightly when she saw Hotah greeting a visitor there, her mouth falling open when recognition registered. She galloped downhill, nearly stumbling in her haste.

Seal, she shouted as she came closer, the word nearly unrecognizable due to her mangled—healed, but scarred—tongue further impeding her speech.

Towhee brushed past Hotah with a quick glance, moving to pull her granddaughter into a hug even as her mind raced. When was the last time they’d seen one another? Where had Seal been all this time? Did she know her parents’ and siblings’ whereabouts? These and so many more questions fluttered around her head as Seal’s familiar scent threaded into her nose.