Noctisardor Bypass imbolc

Druid had never known such bitter cold. She walked alongside Whitebark Stream toward the maple forest, barely noticing the frigid temperature. She paid no attention to where she was going, simply drifting in a way befitting her situation.

When she looked up and saw the familiar stone arches against the white skyline, Druid’s heart lurched in her chest. Before she even realized what she was doing, she sent up mournful cries of @Sequoia’s and @Witch’s names.

<3!

It was a sweet sound to hear, Druid's voice. Sequoia still felt a pang of guilt, knowing that Indra had been taken and likely wasn't coming back anytime soon. She had a feeling Laurel was going to crumble if she didn't get her daughter back. The piebald woman rushed toward the call, sure that @Witch would be right there, too. Her girls were safe and sound.

Druid! she yelled when she was close enough, her heart nearly bursting out of her chest. You're safe.

Her voice tapered off into lachrymose silence as winter’s teeth sawed at her bones. No response came except the silence of the grave, the stone arches now seeming more like tombstones. She ought to keep moving, she knew, turn back.

Before she could bring herself to do as much, a familiar voice rose out of the winter stillness, crying her name. Druid went very still, her breath catching in her throat momentarily before she gasped, Mama?

It was Sequoia! Druid was so stunned, she felt frozen, rooted to the spot. Not only was her mother here at home, she looked unharmed. Where was Witch? The youth’s eyelids fluttered as tears welled in her eyes, clinging to her lashes.

Witch is safe, too. We both hid when we heard Ursus come for Rivenwood. Mahler and Laurel were badly hurt, but they'll recover. Merrick took Indra. The taste of Merrick's name was bitter on her tongue. He had done this for stupid, selfish reasons; that much Sequoia knew. There was the question of where did they go from here, but the Dritte didn't know the answer to that. She knew she wanted to help Laurel retrieve Indra, but how? Sequoia doubted brute forcing their way in was going to work.

She had a feeling Laurel was going to get herself killed trying to get Indra back. But what if there was another way? What if—instead of brawn—they used their brains? Was there a way to trick or bribe them into giving her back?

Witch was safe. Tears sprang to Druid’s eyes. They came so easily these days, though these were the happy, relieved sort. As they spilled over her cheekbones, she moved nearer to Sequoia, meaning to press her nose to her dam’s nape when the woman’s words made her go still again.

Mahler and Laurel were alive, which was good news, but her gladness was tempered by the news that they were badly hurt. Sequoia insisted they would recover. She said something about Merrick taking Indra, as if the name should mean something. It didn’t, though Druid assumed it belonged to one of the attackers from Ursus, which she took to be the name of the enemies’ pack.

Why? was all Druid could manage.

I don't really know. I guess Merrick is her nephew? He took Abel, too. It doesn't really make any sense to me, but it wouldn't be the first time a family got weirdly possessive. My mother and father belonged to a pack like that. They called me a traitor when I left them, even though I'd never done anything to them. It wasn't as though Sequoia had been selling family secrets or anything. She sighed, wishing that Druid didn't have to deal with this mess.

The Dritte couldn't imagine subjecting her own children to such treatment. Whoever Kiwi's brother (cousin?) had been, he hadn't been all there in the head as far as Seq was concerned.

Sequoia didn’t have the answers Druid sought. Apparently this Merrick had taken both of Laurel’s children. And she had pointed the way to the family of three, though she felt only the tiniest wisp of guilt about that by now. Druid didn’t know what she’d done, but she was certain Laurel had brought this upon herself, her children and the rest of Rivenwood.

But her mother shared an anecdote about her own familial schism. Druid blinked. She wasn’t convinced Laurel was as innocent as a younger Sequoia simply leaving her birth pack, though she had nothing to go on except her teenage biases and suspicions.

She wasn’t sure what else to say, so Druid spoke the only words that made any kind of sense. I want to see Witch. Will you take me to her? She took a breath. After that, I have to go back to the glacier to let them know I’m going to come back here. Heda and a lady named Lane have been looking after me. Lane saved my life; she treated me when my wounds were infected.

Of course, Sequoia said. She was glad to know that Druid had been among friends when things had gotten ugly here. Quietly, Sequoia began trying to think of ways to right the wrongs that had been done to Laurel. Perhaps she shouldn't feel so strongly about the woman, but they shared a friendship that Sequoia knew was hard to come by. She couldn't just toss her friend to the side when things got bad. That wasn't how friendships worked.