“NO!” I cried out as I burst into the clearing. My chest heaved from the exertion of the sprint that had carried me here. The scent of blood had tainted my nostrils as I had grown closer, my heart set on fire by the melancholy call of my sire. “Please, no,” I said softly, daring to take a step closer. My eyes welled with tears, my resolve to remain strong - no matter what faced me – deteriorated. I found myself short of breath. All of that time I had wasted being upset with her for her absence in my life. She had wished to spend afternoons with me, to reconcile and make up for lost time. And I had avoided her, for what? My own pride? Foolish. Now what would I do? How would I ever learn from her? And father. How could I possibly go on without him? He had been the beacon by which I had lived my life. He had taught me everything I knew. My heart ached, I mourned for them though they were not yet gone from this plane of being.

My siblings huddled around them, crying at their paws and trying to remain as close to them for as long as they could. Finally courage found me and I moved forward, circling behind them as my older brother Sleekwing moved backwards. I lowered myself, sitting behind my father who encircled my mother. She seemed so small and fragile, a way in which I had never seen her before. Lifting the paw nearest to them, I draped it over my sire’s back, following suit with my head. I stretched my neck forward so that my nose pressed into the ruff of my mother’s neck. “I’m not ready.” I whispered to them. Pleadingly I looked to my father. He had guided me so true, been my closest friend and trusted advisor as I trained to someday assume the throne. I knew that tonight was not that night. The usurper’s scent was entwined within my mother’s bloody pelt. It would be my duty and my duty alone to someday return and seek vengeance. But tonight was not that night.

I pressed closer to them, breathing in their scents as deeply as I could. Composure was of no afterthought in this moment. All of us gathered here felt a great and deep loss on this night. They still breathed, shallow beneath me. But soon they would be gone and there was nothing that I could do for them. I was not strong enough. There was still so much left for me to learn, and who would I learn it from now? Clinging close to them, I let my eyes wander the group before me. Gazing over each of my siblings and the friends of our family that had come to pay their respects, my eyes came to rest upon Orca. She was my long lost sister, who I had only known in the briefest of instances. But she was so alike to our mother, or who our mother had once been. Perhaps it was her that I should go with, try to find some meaning to my life. I was not sad at the loss of a future throne, or even a home. I was sad at the loss of an opportunity to truly get to know my mother. For all my life I had known and loved my father. But I had taken this last year for granted, avoiding her to make a point that she had hurt me. And now I would never get the chance to make it right, not really. But someday I would overthrow this usurper and allow my family to come home, though we would never be complete without our matriarch and patriarch again.

I took another deep breath, wanting to treasure these last moments with them, and shutting the rest of the world out. The love I held for them was so deep, but I knew even the love of their children could not will them to remain with us. Moonglow was going, and Alcide would not let her go alone. Their love was that of fairytales, of legend. And I was lucky enough to call them my parents.