Arrow Lake Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.

Exactly. Why would they do that… “She made them do it. Convinced them it was me who’d kill those babes. How could they think that Tak.” A bit of his soul peeled away the brokenness exposed to the dim lighting of the den. Just there hovering under the surface. The way and only a sibling pair might come to understand. Silently he prayed she could see the anguish clinging to his brethren’s furs.

The lost man seeking to find some validation that he was still loyal and the man he was always supposed to be. The shame at leaving home, even if the alternative was a much darker fate than simply living. A tear hovered at the corner of his eye; the only world he had ever known ripped out from underneath his paws. Dropping his gaze to the suckling kids at Tak’s side. He would never be so heinous. “How could they thing I would do that?” The pause he broke came from a stone cold unwavering tone that surrely he was asking a general query, but the ice that was held in his eyes fractured. “I didn’t really want to die, and so I fled, leaving the ice. I’m sure I would find one of you somewhere along the way.” When in reality there was no guarantee. And perhaps he had wished that he hadn’t wandered into someone elses adventure. How could he really be sure, unless he tried. His affirmation made, I will become my own person.