Bearclaw Valley cursed to hold a weight you cannot bare

we are, comes the pale male's response.

gannet, the introduction follows. newt's imperial gaze goes from gannet to the youth about his own age introduced as ashlar and then back again when the darker of the two doesn't seem inclined to add anything.

i'm newt. he offers his own name in return. gannet supplies that they are looking for 'the hollow' — which newt is left to assume is the name of a pack ...but if he's heard it before it does not ring any bells; seconds later as gannet informs him that they are gone it no longer matters. i'm sorry to hear that, newt offers as a condolence despite that he, himself, doesn't know how it feels to come here to a whole pack missing.

only a brother and that was bad enough. well, i'm not really the one that knows much about packs around here — newt admits, cringing slightly at how much it makes him sound like a homebody. but my mom or dad might. they lead easthollow. it's right next door. newt says and then hesitates before offering, i could take you to the borders, if you'd like? it would mean foregoing his hunt but if it helped these two wanderers find their way to whom newt assumes is their family then it was worth it. there were other raccoons, after all.