Baba and Dongwa hadn't been back at the alley long when Hun-Hun leaped gracefully through. She spotted them and approached. "So? How'd it go?"
Baba tilted his head. "Until my daughter is found, you can assume it didn't go as well as we hoped," came the crispy response.
Hun-Hun narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't get fresh with me, old man. I'm half your age and twice as strong."
"Keep it together," he snapped. "I have a lot on my plate. And I am not weak."
"Oh yeah?" she asked, and kicked a box closer to the alley wall. "Can you do this?" And she hopped onto the box and then, in one giant leap, she had gotten onto the wall. She looked down and walked away from the corner to make room for him. "Well?"
Baba knew he couldn't do it.
"I don't have time for this...this juvenility!" Baba declared. He turned and stalked toward the gate that led into the village.
Hun-Hun raised her brows at Dongwa. "He won't last long out here if he's not willing to get competitive."
He jumped onto the box and then onto the wall. "Well, he's not. There's more than one way to survive." Then he looked worried as he muttered, "And I don't think Sheegwa knows any of the ways."
"Don't worry. Even if, worst case scenario, you never find her; she'll adapt all on her own." Her warmth, intended to be reassuring, faded when he made a face.
"You don't think we'll find her?"
Hun-Hun sat, draping her tail off the edge. "I want you to. But - "
"But what?" Dongwa asked defensively. "You think we'll give up?" he added harshly, staring at her.
Hun-Hun was quiet. She hadn't meant to yank his tail. Now what could she say?
Dongwa didn't give her the opportunity to figure it out. He turned around and jumped onto the box, squishing it with a sudden bang that surprised her. He jumped onto the ground and started walking away.
Hun-Hun jumped onto the box and onto the ground, spilling the box onto its side. She trotted after him. "Dongwa..."
"No, I get it. You think we'll give up, or...or that we'll be too late, but you...you don't know that. You don't know anything, so just shut up."
She automatically stopped walking, watching him hasten from her presence. He squeezed through the gate, walked several paces away and sat with his back facing her. And there he waited, for what remained of his family to return.
-0-0-0-0-
Sagwa's voice echoed through the cavern. "Sheegwa!" she called, wondering why she hadn't heard her again.
"She's not here."
"Yes she is! I heard her voice!"
"Sagwa, you're hallucinating. And we're wasting precious time!"
"No, she's here. I know she is, she has to be," Sagwa said brokenly. "I'm - I-I've got a promise to keep, I'm supposed to find her."
"You will. But not here," Mama urged.
"Then where?" Sagwa exploded. "We made signs, asked the bats, the cats, the frogs...What if she can't be found? What if she doesn't want to be found?"
"Well, of course she wants to be!"
"Who are you to decide what she wants?" Sagwa demanded. "What she thinks. Who she loves?"
Mama stared at her, feeling herself breaking with her daughter. "Now you know as much as I do that she loves you."
"No, why would she? How could she? I'm a bad big sister!"
"You're not a bad big sister."
"Well, if I'm so great, then why didn't she stay?!" Sagwa shouted, and realized she was shouting at her other parent again. She backed up submissively and forced herself to speak calmly. Her voice shook with her suppressed rage and panic, "For one night, one lousy night."
"Sagwa..."
"No, I want to be alone. I mean I don't want to be, but I have to be."
Mama clenched her jaw, hating to separate in an unfamiliar cave. But, she had to respect her daughter's choices. She still saw her as her little girl, but it had to start sometime.
"If you need me, call me," she demanded.
Sagwa barely nodded before she whirled around and ran down a passage. Unable to hold herself together any longer, Mama plopped down brokenly and wept.
