How Quickly Things Change

When Ash began to shift and wake up, Tam's gaze shifted to her daughter and a smile tugged at her lips. "Good morning," she said in reply, starting to unwrap and portion out half of the food she had brought while Ash stretched and got settled more upright on the cot. She almost warned her not to move too drastically to protect the stitches Kane had put in, but Ash seemed to remember and realize it as she stretched so Tam didn't need to. Placing a portion of the meat at Ash's paws, she said, "I figured you would probably be hungry when you woke up and you certainly need a good meal to heal." She would certainly need a lot of good meals and rest before she was fully healed up from her ordeal, but this was a good start. Besides, Tam didn't get the chance to really care for any of her older children any more now that they were old enough to live their own lives and she was off living hers so it was a nice treat in a way.

As they began to eat their respective meals they ate quietly for a bit before Ash spoke, bringing up Resin and the obvious lack of her presence here. It seemed that her clever daughter had already picked up on the fact that her mom would have been here to see her if she could and what the only real reason for her absence would have been beyond just Resin disappearing as she had which was very much not in her late mate's personality. Tam's ears flicked back and shoulders sagged slightly as a frown pulled at her lips. "Yes," she replied softly as Ash questioned the loss of her mother without fully spelling it out. "I'm not sure I have either even though it's been so long," she added with a soft sigh when Ash mentioned how she hadn't processed it yet.

"It's been two years now," she admitted after a moment, starting to pick at her breakfast a bit. It was hard to imagine that it had been that long already even though so much had happened in that time as well. Some days she felt as if she had fully accepted what had happened and had moved on and sometimes that grief caught back up with her. She had learned to deal with it much better than she had in the past, but that was entirely thanks to Kane and their children. They gave her a reason to keep going and looking toward the future. "I know she would be thrilled that you were home," Tam assured her as her mint gaze refocused on Ash with a small, slightly sad smile.

Tamsyn Carpathius of the Valley