Something lost

There was so much going on when she returned. Eden had gone missing with one of her pups, nothing but a few smears of blood found in their wake, and a quick headcount of her own kids told her Deluge was missing too (as though the absence of her glowing fur at night wasn’t a dead give-away), and the boys were absent, thought their scents still lingered faintly, heading off to the west. Modesty had checked all the usual haunts, but her scent had long since faded from the beaches and the borders. She couldn’t even tell what way the girl had left. A small selfish part of her thought that she should have expected it, to just accept the loss like she had with her first and move on. But as terrible a mother as she was, she knew there was still hope that her girl was out there. Even if she was her least favourite of the ones that made it. Maybe just because she could see too much of her younger self in the girl.

The moon was high by the time she had finished checking the pack lands, and it finally clicked that there was no trace of Hyacinth either. What on earth was going on around here? Her daughter’s absence was enough to make up her mind, but the additional losses only cemented her decision. She sharply poked Gil in the ribs. “I’m going to look for her. Send Erish to find me if she shows up. I’ll start with Ashen and Hibari and head North, just in case she tried to follow us like Jack did. Warimoo can let you know if I run into trouble. I think the boys have gone west, probably looking for her too. If they aren’t back by tomorrow… well, they’re only young, they can’t be far, right?” She had planned to go looking for her mother to officiate their wedding anyway, though that wouldn’t be the primary purpose of her journey now.

“Speech.”