Time ticks like water in a still cave. After a turn of events out of their control, the renegades have scattered with a promise to reunite in a year and a season. They are not the only ones who have disappeared from the South Forest. While hope blos...
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"His name's Dusk." Sethral emerged from Stormhole and tossed an empty leaf bowl out the window. The wind swept it away.
"He talks?" said Whipper.
"Did to me. Didn't answer my other questions, though. I think he's still in shock."
'I heard something about a name?' clicked Jay, emerging from the back tunnels.
Sethral repeated what she had said, then pointed questioningly at the leaves Jay was carrying.
Jay shook his head. 'He can eat again at sunhigh. Did he drink?'
"Finished the bowl. I gave him a fresh one."
The Raindai vanished down the stairs. Sethral checked the sky for Flitter and wandered to the boulder. Whipper made room for her.
"Taz and Fletch are guessing he's an elemental," she said quietly. "I can't even doubt that, if water elementals are a thing now."
"What kind would he be?"
"They think darkness? I mean, he makes you and Wing look practically grey-furred. And he blends with shadows."
They talked in undertones for a while, until Whipper jerked his head up. "Shh."
They crept down to Stormhole. Dusk was sobbing softly into Jay's shoulder.
'Can you get Wing?' flicked the Raindai.
Wing was retrieved. Dusk cried harder once cuddled between the two Coppertails, but he faded quickly and soon fell back asleep. He had spent most of the last three days asleep.
"Poor kid," murmured Wing. "I can't imagine how stressed he's been."
Jay had determined that Dusk had been in the south for less than a moon. He had likely fled the cold, or the Whitewings Whipper said had recently occupied the North mountains. He would have been forced to adapt to life in the South forest in midwinter, while dodging Leslanders and trying to find food. The only thing missing was Hyenar bites.
"So he can defend himself, at least," Fletch had noted.
Whipper joined the Coppertail pile. Sethral rubbed Dusk's fur and wandered out to the forest. She was hungry, but found herself looking more for north-ranging plants than her usual food sources. The restlessness grew as she filled her stomach.
At last an idea sent her out to the Rock flats. Drakons stayed in torpor in cold weather, and nothing bothered her as she cruised between Rockland spires in plain view. A tuft of green drew her down. A coralberry bush, evergreen and weathered as a stone, clung to a rock crevice. Sethral stripped it of its fruit. The tiny, orange berries were dry and wrinkled, but Jay said they were more flavourful that way. The bush yielded only a small handful, but that was probably for the better. Sethral flew back to Rockhall and snuck down the Stormhole stairs. Taz was mock-napping in a corner and Whipper was on watch.
