Her answer came only moments after my howl concluded, but her voice sounded different than I remembered. Strained, somehow. My ears pulled back in discomfort at the sound. I knew that she was no longer young, but some part of me had tried so hard to deny the reality of it. She was my mother, she was a great healer...she would live forever. But that was not the truth, and I had to be strong for her now, as she had been strong for me when I was but a pup in the den. It was the way of things, I just hadn’t realized how strongly I had been denying it to myself until I heard her tired voice call out to me.

She was in the meadow, as she had been the last time I had come to visit her and introduce her to her grandson. I loped through the forest until it gave way to the beautiful landscape she so seemed to love. Even accented with frost and snow it held its elegance; but I couldn’t help but wonder how much time she spent out here. Did Coszcotl make sure she was kept warm? Many thoughts such as this sent my mind into disarray, but as I came to her everything else vanished as she spoke. A smile pulled across my features as I leaned down to her, wrapping my neck around hers in an embrace that always put my heart at ease. After a moment I withdrew, only shifting slightly before I laid down opposite of her so that we were practically nose to nose, only slightly off to the side so that we were in full view of one another. Reaching forward, I placed a tender lick upon her cheek.

“And you are beautiful as ever, mother.” Despite the evidence that she’d not been eating much in the form of protruding ribs and a slightly duller coat than normal, her face still held the charismatic look of a mother who cared deeply for her family. That was Moth, as she had always been, and I was glad to see it. “I am well, working towards another promotion within Diveen. Isola is so generous to consider me for a higher position than I already hold.” My tail thumped against the ground as I practically reverted to the teenage boy I had been in the aftermath of the skyfall, so eager to please and impress my parents. Of course the loss of my father had brought a more serious note to my ambitions, but for the moment all I wanted was to make my mother proud of me.

“But how are you? Are things good here? Is Coszcotl taking care of you?” Some part of me knew he was; I did not abhor Coza in any way. He and Moth were imprints who had further pledged their bond to one another by becoming mates. It was a sensation I was familiar with, and in the same way that I would never let Elowen want for anything I knew that Coza would do the same for Moth. But a son still had to ask.