Sun Mote Copse Werewolf woods wailings.

She opened her eyes to a familiar slant of sunlight. Towhee sat up and rubbed the sleep—and more than a little bit of crust—from her eyes. She gazed around at the copse, taking slow, deep breaths. She didn’t see Meerkat or @Njord, though it was late in the morning and there was much to do to establish their settlement here.

Towhee made her way to the river at the eastern edge of the copse to take care of her dry mouth, then tried to muster up the energy for a patrol. She hadn’t done one of those in a while. But before she took even a single step, her eyes cast downriver, toward the old family graveyard.

Towhee could never forget the spot where her godparents and elder sister’s remains were interred, the soft earth covered in a colorful scattering of fallen leaves. She stood beside the unmarked graves a while, thinking of all the bodies she’d buried in all sorts of places over the years.

Without really thinking about it, she found a trio of river stones nearby and placed them at intervals: one each for @Elwood, @Finley and @Wildfire. Though his body wasn’t here, Towhee teared up as she found and lovingly placed one for @Caracal, then thought, Why stop there? She placed three more for his litter mates, @Marten, Blackbird and Butterfly; another for poor @Primrose; and, lastly, a small headstone for @Leona.

She could add so many more, though she stopped after memorializing each of her lost children. Towhee carefully stepped back from the row of tombstones. She didn’t think they were here—especially those buried in faraway places—but it was cathartic, building this little place of remembrance.

She would have to find Meerkat and invite her daughter to perhaps place a stone for Narwhal. With that thought in mind, Towhee turned her back on the little necropolis and headed to the northern stretch of borders to help solidify the Sveijarn-Corten claim.

Phox hoped that his help had been... well helpful in Moontide. He had filled them in on the herd locations nearby, and it would be up to them to do the hunting—something that really wasn't his strong suit these days. It really wasn't even speed anymore, as he'd mostly adapted to that. It was his balance that really threw things off and made it dangerous for him. He'd taken enough spills now to know what his limitations were, and tight turns and jumping were essentially out of the question.

After a brief visit to Moonspear's borders—where he gave his condolences to Sialuk—she let him know that Njord and Meerkat had headed to Sun Mote Copse. It seemed an obvious place to head next, so he did just that. He tried to remember the last time he'd been here. It had to have been literal years between the last time he was here and now.

Everywhere he went, he felt like Niamh's ghost was there to haunt him. First the island, now here.

It didn't take long to find Towhee, the strong smell of border markings leading the way as he came from the north. He hopped his way up ahead of her, making a wide arc until he came up perpendicular to her right side. The trees were in full autumn-phase, but something about everything made him feel like this place was just... so haunted.

He slowed, stopped, then sat down so he could properly sign. -Hey, sis. Sialuk told me about Meerkat and Njord moving back to the old stomping grounds.-

Catching Phox’s scent on the air was like applying a balm directly to Towhee’s chafed heart. She turned to scan for his familiar face, drawing in a deep breath as she saw him approaching on her right. She stopped moving to let him catch up with her, heart lighter but sinking fast when Towhee realized she would have to convey the bad news yet again.

Yeah, it’s really poetic or something, Towhee quipped, wishing she could smile. She tried, though her face quickly fell, quite likely alerting her brother to something amiss before she even had the chance to choke out, Phox… it’s Caracal.

Something about her expression caught Phox off-guard, which was out of the ordinary. Normally, he could see right past whatever façade his sister put on, but it took him a moment to break through it. Something was wrong. Really wrong. He wondered if something had happened to Meerkat or Njord. Maybe that was why they had left Moonspear. Why hadn't anybody alerted him to any of that when he'd visited? He had a strong urge to hop right back over there and give them an earful for keeping him in the dark.

All these thoughts dissipated in Towhee's next three words.

-Caracal? We just saw him! What happened?- he asked frantically, knowing that the answer would be much more difficult to hear than asking the question. He didn't even want to ask the question. Something in the pit of his stomach became heavy with a weight that he had felt far too many times in his short life.

“We just saw him!” Phox said. “What happened?”

It wasn’t the first time Towhee paused to marvel at just how rapidly things had gone to hell for Caracal’s family. She had been well aware of their struggles with the children—first too many, then too few as they began to disappear—but if she had known there was any danger of this, Towhee never would have left the island.

He’s dead, Towhee said quietly. And seeing as he was beyond help by the time I got to him, I never got his side of the story. But from what I can gather, he started eating fermented fruit to get drunk after losing some of the kids. She frowned. Heda didn’t mention anything he did to harm them. I guess she didn’t like that he would turn to that instead of prayer or whatever. But she left him.

And in retelling this tragic tale to her brother, the anger caught up to Towhee. She still pitied Heda for all she’d been through but if she hadn’t overreacted, Caracal would still be alive. Judah wouldn’t be yet another face on a missing poster, so to speak. Towhee’s jaw clenched.

She gathered up all the kids except for Judah and just left them there on the island. I don’t think anybody knows what happened after that but I can only imagine those two were reeling from their family’s abrupt abandonment…

Towhee abruptly realized Phox had lived this exact same scenario, in a sense: his wife had abruptly left him, taking his unborn children with her. In an ironic twist, Niamh had run to the very same island Heda had fled. The comparison made her feel hollow, though hot fury quickly began to fill in those empty spaces inside of her.

They found me in The Heartwood and I insisted they go back. But by the time we got there, Judah was gone and Caracal was unconscious. He never came back. I was there when he passed, Towhee concluded heavily, tears of what felt like lava oozing from the corners of her eyes.