Sleepy Fox Hollow Don't worry about losing our way home now.

She had truly gone - taking the small child and the stalwart man with her. Anselm had resented their intrusion in his home. Now that they were gone, the hollows were eerily quiet.

Too many bad memories in this place, Anselm decided as he looked out under an overhang of winter pine. He could scarcely walk the length of the hollow without being reminded of the past. Here was where Emmerich and I found that antler, here was where papa and I hunted. Here is where Wylla sunned along the river, here is where Ilse was born.

So many faces, gone. And Anselm left holding these memories, wondering if these faces would ever return.

He let out a long exhale as the wind scoured past. In his mind's eye he conjured the faces of his family -- Mahler, Wylla, Emmerich, Ilse -- and then, he let them go -- watching as the edges of their faces rippled and frayed, carried off by winds he would never feel again.