Stavanger Bay [m] the sparrows drag me down

Seaspray was a quiet comfort as he neared the place where everything had gone so right, and then so wrong. He couldn't see it yet. Not through the dense woodland that lay between him and the low plateau that had once sheltered his family. He thought of his seal hunter anyway, a quiet pang lancing him through, as always, though the abscess had long since been drained.

He stood there a long moment, the cold surf washing over his sandy paws while he gazed off into the middle distance. He needed to visit Moonglow, he knew, to see if they had any word of his son. To see if they had any word of anyone — but he could not yet allow himself to hope, and so there was not yet any reward in seeking that place out.

For all he knew, even Valiant might be gone from it.

Dutch lingered on the briny shoreline, eventually turning his attention to the bubbling sand. His movements rote and thoughtless, he began to dig for clams.