Nova Peak The sun won't let up.

He wanted to bury her he could not bury her he wanted --

Riley shook his head. Masque. Raider. Dead. The rest was foggy; at some point he knew he'd woken up next to her stiff body, flies already blackening the goldensun of her eyes. He'd gotten up.

He wanted to bury her but he could not bury her, the kids. The kids.

How much time was left?

Dizzy. There was something following him but he looked back and --

what?

His throat burned.

Had Nova Peak always been so tall?

By the time he made it to the den, his muscles tremored of their own accord. She's -- His hindquarters sagged. dead, @Goldeneye was there in the cave, and sensed something was terribly amiss. Riley swallowed and felt saliva and blood both mat his dark fur.

who was that?

His head snapped to the right with a growl, lips pulled back in a quivering grimace. Dead.

Dad was home!
The boy awakes from his sleep. Without blinking the drowsiness from his eyes, he jolts to his feet and rushes to go meet him.
He doesn't sense anything wrong.
His body quivers with excitement. The boy ignores all warning signs and bounds toward his father, nibbling at his chin in a demand for food, affection, acknowledgment.

Riley’s lip quivered. Whatever specter followed him disappeared. His gaze snapped back to movement in front of him.

Riot.

The sight of his son was enough to restore brief lucidity in Riley. He’d come this way to warn Goldeneye and collect the kids. He was in no condition to travel and he knew this.

But the longer he walked the more malaise settled into his skin. He had bouts of incoherency where he came to with an abrupt gasp, remembering that she was dead;

A touch along his chin caused his fur to stand on end and his muzzle to crinkle in a snarl. Riley jerked his head out of reach, surprised by his own reaction.

Oh, he gasped softly, taking a step away from Riot. He must not be here he must be here he must not —

Riley’s body quivered as he wrestled with the delirium spreading its malignant fingers inside of him. The kids —

He was gradually coming to terms with the cold realization he would not survive whatever this was. His body shook outside of his own control. His only directive now, before he lost too much lucidity, was to find someone to take in the kids. Go — go tell @Redd. Riley begged of Goldeneye, collapsing against the stone wall of the dugout.

His mate was dead and he would soon follow. Some latent instinct inside him informed him he must not allow the kids to get any closer. It broke his heart to do so, but Riley must not imperil them.

Riot. Rowdy. Ruckus. Listen to me. His golden gaze was waning, and it took all of his cognizance to form his next sentence. Daddy is sick — don’t.. don’t touch papa, okay? A sob choked out between his gritted teeth as he begun to walk out of the den and into the settling dusk.

something in daddy was different

not the blood or the scent but the demeanor. the fear in his golden eyes that set a deep-root chill through rowdy. 

he did not approach like riot did, not at first — and when daddy snarled rowdy flinched and turned to the corner of the den, where he buried his head under his paws and thought if he could not see the world, the world could not see him.

Raider did not return. Riley remained. Ruckus picked up on their names, committing them to silent memory now that their ears worked properly. When Riley said the word "dead" twice in a row, Ruckus repeated a gleeful, Dead! Dead! Dead! Their first word.

Riley departed, and Ruckus made a run for it after him. Their attempt would be thwarted by another adult—at least, it always had been in the past—but that was no reason not to try. Without Raider and Riley there to block them, they would finally get a taste of that delicious outside world that had taunted them with bright blobs of color and light.

Dead?
Wasn’t that the place they lived? 
Wait. That was the den. He does not know where dead is. Wherever it was, he hopes mom will come back from there soon. 
Now another word—Redd? Or was dad slurring his words again?
Okay. He is thoroughly confused. And dad leaves.
Without even offering a better explanation. The nerve!
Ruckus’s voice hurts his ears. The boy is too overwhelmed to shut him up.
He whimpers miserably.