Swiftcurrent Creek Hide and seek!

Even before the reply was verbalized, Talos's heart sank down into her stomach to settle there like a rock as she watched the smile fade from Aura's face at the pup's question.

...Oh, was all she said in return, though, at least at first—still very down and subdued. Her ears drooped closer to the earth, and her tail seemed a limp dead thing that had been hunted and killed and then left there in the fitful sunbeams to rot. Talos was too busy staring despondently at the earth nearer Aura's feet to take much notice of her cheery wink, and the fire-furred elder's jovial tone didn't seem to penetrate Talos's shell of misery at all. Talos sat staring at the dirt for a long moment before it seemed to occur to her that the other had made a suggestion—exactly the sort of suggestion the girlchild would normally jump at. Talos gave the most halfhearted shrug possible after another moment's hesitation. Mebbeh no'. She shifted just a little, and seemed lost in her own thoughts, her eyes hazy and unfocused and brow ridged deep by concern.

But Aura wasn't just going to give up and go away, now was she? Talos shifted again a minute later, somewhat uncomfortable not only from Aura's steady presence which seemed almost to demand some sort of response, but also because she never had been one to sit still for very long. Her mood shifted as she burst out all of a sudden, the idea occurring to her on a fractious impulse: I'un wanna see th'territory. I seen enough o'ih! Weh' c'n go somepla' else. Besides, if she let Aura lead her a merry chase all around Swiftcurrent, Talos might see Momma or Poppa after all—or Aria too, horror of horrors!—and somehow she really wasn't quite sure she was ready for that yet. Yes: the more she thought about this notion of leaving the borders...maybe even for a good long while...the more and more she liked it. Her eyes surged upward to meet Aura's with fresh determination, and a stubborn set to her coal-furred jaw.