You Are My Sunshine

Her decision had been made. Falk had been made aware of not only that, but the fact that she was planning on not having a litter this year. So that left plenty of time to spend with the four children she had already. She was taking a day off from planning to spend with Tornach today, and as she paused at the mouth of the ravine long enough to call him out before continuing on her way, trusting her large and still growing younger son to catch up, she reflected that soon, none of her four children were going to be pups. She had another decision that affected Tornach in particular. The night he had slipped out of the den without permission, she had given him a firm ground rule; never leave the den without permission until he was a yearling. He’d done so well with that rule, never once breaking it, that she had decided to expand the boundary to the Plains. He could come and go from the den as he pleased, as long as he made someone aware that he would be out, and where to find him.

Baine would be getting the rule as well. Surreal regretted not enforcing the same rule as strongly with Baine as she had with Tornach; it felt like favoritism, and that was a stigma she wanted nothing to do with. She wanted her children to never feel like she loved one of them more than the others. They all held special places in her heart. Each had an individual little piece that could never be replaced if they were lost to her. And that empty chink in her heart was from Faite, still gone.

Surreal came to a stop at the edge of the wooded area the den lay hidden within and waited for her younger boy to reach her, tail curling around her hips, the last two inches tapping in an effort to shed some of the restless energy brought on by the heat cycle. Damned thing was driving her near to batty. What else would she do with Tornach, today? Take him for a run? Just the two of them? Take him on his first deer hunt? Teach him a few moves on fighting? She knew Regulus had been giving small lessons to both Tor and Baine. The possibilities were endless.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think