It's wild like the river It's warm like the sun

Kotori had given up on being a healer and this last season had started attempting to learn how to hunt.  It was one thing to catch a rabbit but the last deer he had tried to catch had escaped which was pretty irritating.  He had been sitting on a patch of dry ground slighty outside the pack’s border watching a few deer grazing.  Kotori entertained the idea of going for the larger doe but even as he did he heard dad’s call.

The deer and Kotori turned their heads and when the deer realized Kotori was there they fled.  Well, so much for hunting.  The last time dad had come home and called for the family had been to announce the death of mom and Az.  So was there to be more horrible news or could it be something good?  No, if it had been he would of heard it in the howl.  Kotori sometimes liked surprises but right now he didn’t feel the enjoyment of suspense.

Kotori loped back to the packland, slowing his gait as he spotted the family and, more of the family than he expected.  Like a ghost risen from the grave there was his mom.  The same mom that had been burned to ash, right?  Kotori had never understood how to feel about her death.  It had been strange in a way and he had tried to quickly push past and it and not look back.  


So after getting past her death she was now alive.   It was her but, not her.  She looked frailer and the confidence he had once imagined her to have seemed gone.  The boy approached looking at the variety of emotions of all around before finally looking his mom in the face.  Mother and stranger all in one somehow.  

Kotori moved along side where Briar was, the two horned kids together, giving his mom a lick to the cheek as well and wag of his tail. "Welcome home mom," the boy offered softly.  Kotori was glad she was alive but watching Gossy and Aris he wondered about their extreme reactions versus his own mind.  Was it just a girl thing maybe?  Briar was just an exception.  Briar generally was the favorite of his sisters anyway.

Kotori Fatalis