Shira was a coward.

She told herself that over and over again padding through the shining snow, just to make sure she knew. Leaving the pack behind for the second day in a row.

Coward, coward, coward…

Their one-sided argument yesterday had been enough to launch her and Diego out of speaking terms, and neither had done anything last night to restore them. And what did she do? Get up even earlier this morning to avoid talking to him?

Yes, absolutely.

Coward, coward, coward…

But he didn't need her. He just thought he did.

When he was stressed – really, truly, stressed – he didn't sleep well. And he'd slept all the way through the night last night. No tossing and turning, no (now rare) nightmares about the various things in his past that there were to have nightmares about. She would know, she was awake for most of it, unable to sleep surrounded by the pack and the silent, lurking boredom that had driven her away in the first place. A deep, desolate boredom that she'd never thought she'd feel again. Certainly not after getting married to him of all sabers.

Sometimes, when they were first together, Diego would wake up and not know where he was. Shira had always been a light sleeper – yet another quality that Gutt had prized – and she'd begun to believe during those long nights under stars that didn't shift and move from endless water a mere iceberg-length below her body, that this was simply the way that her boyfriend slept.

Boyfriend. Love of her life. Mate. The first saber she'd looked at, really met, and wanted to stay somewhere for.

But the truth was, that wasn't the way he normally slept. Waking up in fits and starts wasn't really his style. And Diego definitely had a style. Sarcastic, occasionally leaking into snide, tough, intellectually ruthless, and not-so-secretly incredibly soft-hearted. And apparently aching in ways that even he didn't even really understand from walking a path that he'd thought would lead him one way but had instead veered off into another.

Shira still often struggled to get him. Even now that the nights had calmed down, that he slept well and had worked through the ever-shifting ice of what still bothered him about his past. Well, most of it anyway. And for as much as she loved her mate, more than her own life and safety, her mind was still selfish. She didn't want him to be miserable and lost, but she didn't not want him to be those things either.

The snow was softer out here, drifting down from the wide branches of the firs into tufts and loose powder. It was more peaceful than the smells and phantom noises of life among twenty-five plus sabers and a full herd of mammoths. And a small, patched-together network of other herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.

She hadn't been kidding when she'd said that he was the social one. It was more than true. They had friends here. Friends that had loved him enough to welcome her even when they didn't want to; friends that had helped save her, in the end; friends that had raised their children with them. But sometimes Shira looked around and felt just a little too crowded. A little too surrounded by too much.

It had never been the aquatic diet that bothered her, the late nights hanging out with a deer couple that had somehow become their close friends, or walking into the common areas and seeing a mammoth that knew her name and smiled because they were unnaturally happy to see a hangry carnivore stalking toward them after a bad night's sleep. It wasn't about any of that, even though it should have been.

Because a part of Shira knew, deep deep deep down, that she had somehow managed to put herself right back where she'd started. It had all happened so slowly and subtly that she literally woke up on day and realized it. And now that Merle was sleeping from dawn to dusk, unable to stand for more than a few minutes at a time, and generally looked like something had tried to kill him and almost succeeded, she'd finally come full circle.

Her mate had stepped in to do the job he'd spent his whole life working towards, and she had already failed him when he needed her most because she had failed to realize how much it would bother her. Pack leadership had always felt shallow and self-serving rather than necessary and honorable. An argument she could make about Gutt embarrassingly easy in hindsight. She didn't want to be a part of any of it. Even watching Diego take on more than he needed to because he knew it was the right thing to do couldn't completely ease the vague fears that had started creeping up on her in the last few days.

She bristled and almost walked into a tree.

It deserved the glare it got and didn't even have the decency to fall over. A missed opportunity. Kind of like the very obvious footprints she was following. Peaches was not good at sneaking around, and the throbbing part of Shira's ego that screamed like lightning when anything even remotely threatening got within smelling distance was doing that annoying, barely-there ache that usually preceded a very bad move.

She just wanted her new, impromptu niece to be a little better at this. To give her an excuse to not have to go storming back to Diego so soon.

And just when she was thinking that maybe that was the real problem, that she did need to go back and set things right before this could turn into a real fight, that he'd understand if she could pull herself together enough to just explain, the trail ended along a slight break in the trees. A small, frozen-over riverbed was to her left, down in a shallow gully. Thick tree cover surrounded the small, balding patch of forest, and there was only one scent to pick up.

It hadn't changed since she'd found it yesterday. Yesterday when she'd pushed her mate away and slunk off to make good on her word. That whatever those two were up to, she'd know. It had taken the better part of a day to get here, having followed Peaches' trail as it meandered through Brian's territory, and by the time she'd come upon this catastrophe, the short day was setting into night. Her earlier assumptions that her new niece was wandering around simply to get the lay of the land died with the sun at her back as Shira made her way home.

Now she stood and just…looked. The snow had probably fallen into thick piles, wind-tossed and smooth before a large force had come through yesterday and completely reordered the area.

Shira slowly stepped from the trees, scanning the great drifts that had been piled in haphazard, tilted piles. There were flat areas where tusks had skimmed the cleared surface of the snow. Footprints here and there trampled back over each other endlessly. Scents of a mammoth on every single surface around the perimeter of the small clearing. Up trees, under logs, deep into the snow. The wind tasted like the still-unfamiliar scent of her fur.

Shira made a complete sweep of every single slope and tree and flake. Then frowned. A quarter of a lifetime among mammoths and she'd never once seen them act this way. Peaches had stopped here and almost destroyed the place. An entire sleepless night to think about it, and she still hadn't come up with what any of this meant.

And there was nothing here that tipped her off.

She glanced up. There was a faint smell of Peaches up in the branches too. Julian had mentioned that she moved differently than other mammoths, but Shira hadn't really thought about it until she had to stare up into the boughs, some of them half broken under a heavy weight that had somehow been fast enough to release its hold before they snapped entirely, and imagine a mammoth somehow moving through them.

She took a deep breath. This. This is what she needed to be doing to help the pack. Peaches had been half a hunch, the kind that usually yielded something even if it wasn't what she'd first suspected. But this…this could be the time that it really paid off.

000

Bodhi slept until midday.

He looked much better and much less confused waking up this time. And after assuring Ellie that he wasn't hungry and no he wasn't lying about that, not that she'd be able to do anything about it anyway, she began trying to get him to go back to sleep.

But he was, once again, more interested in their herd and the area around it. Crash and Eddie had been gone for an early breakfast, as had Sid, again, and the twins came back just as Bodhi was trying to figure out where, exactly, he was.

"So I can just go straight north," he tried for the tenth time.

"No, there's a small mountain range. You're better off doubling back east for a while." Ellie's endless patience was also starting to wear Manny's temper a little thin.

Bodhi just scowled at her. "I don't have time."

"Why not?" Ellie asked at the same time her brothers did.

"I have a better question." Manny cut in, and Bodhi turned to look at him, expression smoothing out a little. Probably hoping Manny would take his side. "If you're not well enough to travel now, what makes you think that you'll be better when you're trying to walk through a snowstorm?"

It was becoming increasingly obvious that Bodhi was planning to leave sooner rather than later – whether he was well enough or not. And Manny's parenting instincts were starting to kick in uncomfortably well.

"I'll be fine. I know how to survive in a snowstorm."

"Bodhi…"

"There's a difference between being tough and being stupid," Manny said before Ellie could start trying to appeal with warmth and feelings. "You can only be both for so long. And I think we all know which one will eventually win out."

The saber opened that sharp mouth of his to answer, but then paused and shut it again. The petulant look Manny got instead was exactly what he'd been hoping for. He let his eyes crinkle a little in a gloating answering smile.

He was almost shocked into dropping it when Bodhi smirked back in defeat.

"Listen to him Bodhi, he knows what he's talking about." Ellie shot him a teasing look that made the twins snicker and Bodhi bite at a smile.

"To which time are you referring?" Manny asked gruffly, deciding it was better to bait her than outright agree like it was true. Which it was.

Ellie just looked at him with her best not impressed expression for a moment before turning back to Bodhi. "See?"

He looked between the two of them before settling back on her. "I'm hurt that you don't think I'm smarter, to be honest."

"She does." The possums chimed in.

"See?" Bodhi raised his eyebrows. As if the twins' opinion held any weight.

Ellie leaned toward him almost threateningly. "What would your pack leader say to you? Would he tell you to get up and go if he knew what had happened? Would he give you the order to keep going?"

There it was.

Bodhi was silent in an instant. And looking a little sheepish. Interesting. He did know he was pushing himself farther than he should, and he'd been planning to go against everyone's better judgement anyway. Even with the knowledge that his own leader wouldn't approve. Manny eyed him speculatively as Ellie added something else about taking care of himself for his own sake and not just for that of others'.

Bodhi looked thoroughly amused at that prospect but didn't argue with her. He seemed to find Ellie the easiest to talk to, with the possums coming in a close second. He addressed Manny respectfully whenever they were speaking, but he seemed most comfortable talking to Ellie. Great. One more voice to take her side in an argument.

"…and you're staying here. Got it?"

Bodhi stared her down for a moment once she was done chewing him out, but it was clear that she'd won. Now that he'd been called out on it, he wasn't going to go against his pack leader. Or Ellie's wrath for that matter. Manny suspected the saber was slowly acclimatizing to the flow of power within their herd.

"I'm not taking a nap," he finally snapped.

"Fine." Ellie said quickly, sweeping backwards to settle into her spot. "You'll sleep better tonight anyway. And it won't be the first time we've dealt with a cranky toddler."

That was about to get a response. He opened his mouth and everything, but the possums, who'd been looking bored throughout Ellie's speech given that it was mostly recycled material from when she yelled at them for not being more careful, cut him off and bounded over to claim his attention for themselves.

"Bodhi, Bodhi, look what we found!" They proceeded to show him a piece of gnarled wood that apparently looked like a saber along with a flower that they then dared him to eat. He passed on the dare but did seem to take an interest in the possums' drawn-out story about discovering the saber-shaped chunk of wood.

Manny found himself breathing a sigh of relief, even if it was mixed with some guilt. He knew Sid wanted Bodhi gone. The sloth was softhearted, and he'd understand, but it was still hurting him.

Manny glanced at their guest. He was grinning as Eddie did a backflip off of his brother's shoulders. The possums' voices were hushed but excited as they talked and acted their way through whatever outlandish story they'd decided would impress Bodhi most. Ellie was dozing a little way away, but her ears twitched at their quiet giggling, and he knew she was keeping tabs on her brothers. Her mouth quirked as one of the twins made an exploding sound.

Well, at least they were happy.

000

Night was slowly beginning to fall. Eventually, the twins' one-sided story time with Bodhi turned into an entire herd discussion about their neighbors and the surrounding area. This time it was less about the area itself and more about the other animals that populated it, and the comfortableness from earlier in the afternoon ran a current underneath their conversation.

Sid was back too. He seemed to be in in an even better mood when he eventually returned, dragging some long sticks behind him. But he still didn't do much more than glance swiftly at Bodhi upon entering their clearing, even though the saber turned toward him in greeting.

Again, Bodhi didn't seem to notice Sid's unsubtle attempt to ignore him and instead glanced from Sid to Manny and then back to Sid. Then his attention went back to the possums and their detailed plan to get Fred back for the comments he was still making about them. Behind them, Ellie was shaking her head at her brothers.

"So what's your pack like?" Crash asked as their story was winding down, switching topics in the blink of an eye.

But Bodhi barely stopped to think before grinning and saying that it was the best; it was home. So far he hadn't said much more than that his pack was far away and he was one of its leaders, but he was more than happy to talk about his packmates and his life. And the twins had no problem coming up with questions for him. He told them about running a pack, that he'd been second in command for a couple of seasons now, and that his pack's territory was quite large and in a beautiful valley. There were eight of them, and they were all quite close, for sabers.

It was a rare glimpse into a reality that Manny's experience had barely touched on. He'd never really thought about the lives of carnivores before Half Peak, and he'd done his best not to think about them after. But now, he couldn't deny that he was interested and just a bit desperate to know. And he knew Sid was. The sloth was sitting up, his body angled toward Bodhi, and he leaned forward at all the same places that the twins did. This was a small, unexpected chance to understand, just a little bit better, what their brief friend's life might have been like.

And it was a subtle reminder of the situation they were in. Bodhi definitely looked better, but the more Manny paid attention, the more he could pick out the fragileness that remained. Bodhi hadn't brought up falling, and even when answering Ellie's questions when he was first awake, he'd skimmed around it. Ellie hadn't pushed it before, but he could tell by her body language now that she was noticing the same thing the longer they talked tonight.

"I told him not to go that way, but he didn't listen. So then I had to…" Sure enough, five minutes later Bodhi stopped dead in his story about his first day as second in command, wincing involuntarily. His smile dropped, and he crooked his neck as if to alleviate a pinch. A moment later it passed, and his eyes cleared. He blinked at them, hesitating. As much as he tried to hide it, he was in pain. And he'd just given himself away.

"Do you have a headache sweetie?" Ellie was on her feet before Bodhi could decide on something to say.

"A little." He answered carefully.

She nodded and held out her trunk just slightly. "May I?"

Bodhi stared at her extended trunk for a heartbeat before saying, "Yes," in a neutral voice. And he didn't do much more than wince as Ellie carefully rubbed the tip of her trunk over the still-visible bump on his head.

"It's smaller than it was at first. But I'm sure it really hurts." She stepped back, giving him space again.

Bodhi looked like he wanted to answer. To say I'm fine, but he didn't. For all that he was good at drawing their attention to other topics and generally acting like he was okay, the truth was, he wasn't.

"Sid, can you get the fire going?" Ellie turned to the sloth, either saving him from having to answer or cutting off any excuses.

Bodhi had been cool in the face of everything their hodgepodge herd had thrown at him so far. But the fire gave him pause.

Despite his concern, Manny stifled a smile when Bodhi's face twisted up at the sight of Sid striking his rocks together over the branches of the ashy circle that was their fire pit. He had been waiting to see when the saber would notice the charred branches and bring it up, and watching Bodhi watch Sid light the fire a few moments later was well worth the wait.

The saber's eyes followed the blaze upwards before trailing back down to its source where the crackling, snapping sticks were being steadily consumed. He blinked into the brightness, stunned into silence.

Sid just nodded to himself, adjusted a few sticks that hadn't yet caught fire, and went to his spot. Bodhi's eyes followed him, and when Sid glanced his way, the two locked eyes in silence. A moment later Bodhi turned his head toward the fire and then back again to Sid, looking impressed.

The sloth stared back awkwardly for a second too long and then looked down and Bodhi, almost unwillingly, turned back to gaze at the flames. They reflected in his swampy green eyes.

He blinked a few more times, there was a long moment of silence, and then his eyes refocused and he looked between them all skeptically. "It's just a headache. I meant what I said earlier. I can't keep hanging around here doing nothing."

Ellie threw up her trunk with an annoyed groan. "You. Are. Ridiculous."

"I know what I have to do."

"You can't possibly think that this is a good idea."

"It doesn't matter if it's a good idea." Bodhi sputtered, starting to wince a little more wildly now, "It has to be done. And it's my job."

"And if you die?"

"From a headache?"

"From your own rampant stupidity!"

"I made it this far didn't I?" He was quick witted, smart. Good at exploiting small points and refitting them to support his own side. And as the conversation began to reheat in the toasty glow of the fire, he was much less surprised by the pack leader argument the second time around and insisted that his leader had given him a specific job to do, something important that he couldn't sit around and wait on. Which left little else than his own sense of wellbeing to argue over.

For as much as Manny had dreaded fighting him physically, verbal fighting was also proving to be tough. There really did seem to be a disconnect between his current injured state and what he was going to run into once he began getting into the unforgiving climate of the far north.

Or maybe he was just young and still thought he was invincible. Which wasn't any better. Manny remembered that feeling all too well.

"If your pack is that way," Manny motioned behind him with his trunk, unwillingly riled up and ready to go all in to try and get this hardheaded, stupid, young kid to listen. "Then why do you have to go that way?" A sharp stab with his trunk to the north.

"I have a message to relay, and I need to find out if their weather has been changing like ours."

His words took the air out of the clearing. Everything felt cold, suddenly, and a dense silence fell. The voices, the fire, the wind, the myriad small sounds that were always there…weren't anymore. At least not to his ears.

Across from them, Bodhi returned their stares warily, no doubt immediately picking up on the change in atmosphere.

"What?" He finally asked, and all the sound returned with a whoosh.

"Is it bad out there too-" Manny started to ask, just as Ellie cut in with, "Did you see two mammoths while you were traveling?"

He and Ellie exchanged a look, and she took a deep breath, resetting the conversation. "Our daughter just got married. She's traveling with her husband right now. We're worried because they're alone and the weather here has…not been reassuring."

"I passed a mammoth at one point, but I didn't stop. I think they might have seen me, but again, I'm not trying to bother anyone-"

Ellie spun toward Manny before Bodhi could finish. "It was her, it had to be."

"Ellie-"

"Why wasn't Julian with her? Why was she alone?"

"I don't know…" Manny stared into her terrified eyes, feeling it all sink in farther, become realer than he thought it could be when he'd griped to them about their plan originally. He turned to Bodhi. "Are you sure she was alone?"

He frowned back. "I'm not hunting mammoths. I get through every area as quickly as possible, so I'm not looking for anything in particular. If they were more than fifty paces away from each other and I didn't actually see him, then I wouldn't have noticed either way."

But they all knew that wasn't a good enough reassurance. Bodhi's frown deepened into concern as he looked between the five of them. Finally, he asked. "Where were they headed?"

Manny sighed, but they all answered. "Nowhere."

"Nowhere? What do you mean nowhere?" His face scrunched up, "They just went off without deciding on a route?"

"They wanted to roam." Ellie broke down, her powerful shoulders sagging. In the last few minutes, her height had settled, caved into itself, and she looked small. Much smaller than she ever had as a possum.

Manny turned back to Bodhi. "When you say that the weather is bad…"

"Snowstorms. And we had a glacier move through out of nowhere. But the storms are getting worse and worse."

"We've had tremors here." Manny said. "And the weather has been…weird."

"The neighboring territory to my pack is having a meeting soon about it. Everyone knows something is going on." Bodhi said quickly, "I'm sure they noticed it too and found a safe place to stop."

Would they though? Manny knew his daughter. He knew how reckless she could be sometimes, and Julian was a follower. He'd trail after her into anything. Those two together…

"Are there safe places that you saw?" Crash asked. "Someplace they could stop?" Next to him, Eddie raised his eyebrows.

"I mean…" Bodhi's reassuring expression wobbled, and he barely stopped to think before frowning. He knew he didn't have an answer that would make them feel better. "I don't know. They could really be anywhere by now, if that's even who I saw…"

Ellie spun away from their conversation to look at Manny. Just him. "We have to go after them."

Finally, somebody was seeing sense. He nodded back. "We'll go."

"How?" Eddie's voice cut in. The twins both had their arms crossed and were standing a few feet from Bodhi, looking dubious. "How are we even going to find them? We have no idea where they went."

"If we leave, we could end up going the opposite direction or something." Crash added.

"We have to try, we don't have a choice-" Ellie started to say.

But Crash cut her off. "And if we get lost?"

"So we should just wait here?" Manny snapped at his brother-in-law.

"Or come up with a better idea." Eddie countered waspishly.

"What better idea? There is no-"

"We can't stay here doing nothing you guys." Ellie added.

"They're right." Bodhi cut in calmly. "I'll help you."

"You'll…do what?" They all turned to look at him.

"I can't track them from here," He went on, as if whatever was happening at the moment made any sense. "But I can get you to the last place that they might have been. It'll still be too long ago for me to pick up anything, but at least you'll know where to start."

"Really?" Ellie breathed.

"But…" Sid lifted a claw, just as Crash and Eddie whooped.

"That's a great idea!" The possums high-fived each other in excitement and immediately started listing off all the "fun" things they could do with a saber around.

"We can teach him how to climb trees."

"Yeah, and he'll teach us how to move silently through the trees so we can sneak up on those jerks done by the lake when they least expect it. And then we can…"

"What about going north?" For as much as Manny didn't want to ask, it was better to know now if this was going to fall apart.

"Nate is a capable pack leader. He knows where to go if they need help." Bodhi answered, watching the possums with an amused smile. Then he turned his attention back to Manny and Ellie, giving an encouraging nod at their hesitation. "And this will let me get back to my pack sooner. If your children have moved on by the time we get to where I might have seen them, we can always check with Brian. He's the one organizing the meeting. If he didn't see them, maybe someone else traveling that way did."

"We appreciate this." Ellie whispered, "I know that this was important to you."

"You're welcome." Bodhi looked up at her, a small smile emerging. It felt unnervingly comfortable, and Manny desperately hoped that his eyes would stay on her and not turn to him. He didn't want to smile back. Not yet.

"Sounds good to me." Eddie interjected in a break in their own conversation.

"Yeah, me too." Crash echoed.

They looked quite pleased with themselves, and Manny felt a small amount of dread that their new favorite friend was now going to be tagging along for them to get into trouble with.

No, not tagging along. Leading. Guiding. Tracking… Manny turned his head toward the only member of their herd who hadn't really said anything yet. Everyone else suddenly seemed to remember him there too, and soon they were all looking at him.

"Sid?" Ellie nudged, her voice back to hopeful as the sloth's eyes shifted between them all desperately.

"I…" He stammered, mouth opening and closing a few times. "But… I don't know if…"

"We need to find Peaches and Julian." Ellie reasoned gently.

It was too obvious that he was desperate to come up with a reason to say no. And just as Manny was about to step in and mumble off a grumpy line about how it was late and they needed to go to sleep, Sid gave up. His panic disappeared and a violent scowl replaced it. "Fine." He crossed his arms, deliberately keeping his eyes away from Bodhi, "For Peaches."

"Good. We'll leave tomorrow morning." Manny rumbled before Ellie's taken aback expression could find its way out of her mouth. Next to her, the twins had their eyes narrowed at Sid, and Eddie was whispering feverishly in Crash's ear. When he finished, they nodded at each other, said goodnight to Bodhi, and scampered up their tree.

Bodhi didn't notice, too busy watching Sid until Ellie claimed his attention with a quiet, "Hey, let's talk for a minute."

Manny slowly made his way over to Sid as Ellie began saying something to Bodhi about still taking it easy at first, that he wasn't healed just yet. Don't give me that look Bodhi, I know you like to pretend like pain is a foreign concept to you, but if you're hurting somewhere else you need to tell me, I mean it…

"I'm sorry." Manny whispered to Sid's curled up body.

He lifted his head slightly from the nest he'd made of his arms, like he was about to say something, but then changed his mind and rolled onto his side so that his back was more or less to the clearing. If it had been just the two of them, alone, Manny would have reached out – placed a trunk on his shoulder and tried to cajole him into talking.

But it wasn't the two of them alone anymore. In the background, the soft sounds of the possums getting comfortable and occasionally slapping each other around to adjust for sleeping space ran underneath Ellie's quiet questions. She must have gotten whatever information she'd wanted out of Bodhi, because they'd moved on to talking about Peaches.

His entire world had completely shifted when his daughter was born, and before that when he'd met Ellie and her brothers, and before that when he'd met Sid. The sloth didn't singlehandedly tip the earth the way he used to, but Manny still didn't like the new incremental shift he'd just caused. It made everything feel just off-balance enough to be familiar and uncomfortable at the same time.

Looking at the sloth's small form at his feet, Manny couldn't bring himself to wish that it was just the two of them anymore. He'd always had an underlying selfish streak he supposed. One that Sid rarely gave in to. He really had followed Manny everywhere, always ready to go along for the ride, and they both knew that he was about to do it again.

And Manny didn't know how to say that he was so, so grateful. Not here, surrounded by their family, and probably not even if they were alone. Maybe that was really where he was selfish. Sid rarely asked for more than a ride, and certainly never a break from the strange situations they perpetually found themselves in, but Manny had known since the day they'd met that his accidental best friend was desperately looking for a good job, maybe even a thank you. And he'd known that Sid would probably have to keep looking for those things from someone other than him.

Ellie wanted them to talk more. Maybe she was right.

"I'm here." Manny finally said when he realized he didn't have anything else to offer. Then he turned and made his way over to where Ellie and Bodhi were still whispering. The possums had somehow already fallen asleep in the last minute and were snoring in the background.

He stopped when he was shoulder to shoulder with his wife.

"We'll leave in the morning." Ellie said and looked down fondly at Bodhi, "Wake me up if your headache gets too bad."

"Sure." He smirked and glanced at Manny as Ellie took his trunk in hers and navigated them both to their usual spot.

"She means it." Manny fixed him with a frown as Bodhi laid his head down on his paws.

This time, his grin was real. "I know."

You'll notice that all of the chapter titles have disappeared. I'm bad at naming chapters, but I figured I'd give it a go anyway. My efforts haven't really panned out as far as I'm concerned, so they've been replaced with the much more boring, but probably just as descriptive, "Chapter 1," etc.

Thanks for waiting, I know this was a long break. I'm still adjusting to a new schedule and some (still good) life changes, but I'm trying to get back into a better writing routine now that everything is settling down. I still think about this story a lot. And I'm grateful that people out there are reading and thinking about it too.

Until next time!