© 2002-2024 Ally
Part 2

**Tobin?** she sent quietly. Violet eyes wrenched themselves away from the heavens and turned to meet eyes that matched his in intensity, if not in color.

"Hm?" he answered.

**Tobin, what'cha think we'd be doin' right now if our parents weren't dead?**

The little healer didn't answer right away, and instead looked out to the east where the storm was still brewing, although it was much closer now than it had been when the pair had woken up. Frowning slightly, the male cub turned back to his friend. "Dunno," he replied. Maybe they'd each be off with their parents, his father teaching him how to swing from tree to tree as gracefully as a treewee. Maybe Quill would be off learning to use sling traps or repairing nets with her mother.

Tobin, although a full three winters younger than Quill, had a mind that was a little more mature than the female's. It wasn't that he was smarter, necessarily, it was just that he thought a little more logically than Quill's "act-on-your-first-instinct" thought process. Then again, there never was that much of a process to her thoughts. It was "react and don't stop to think about it 'cuz you may talk yourself out of it" sort of thing. The healer had pulled Quill out of many a situation that was the consequences of her reactions. So Tobin's quick mind came up with a myriad of things he could be doing if his parents hadn't died. Some things he could be doing that had nothing to do with his parents, other things were things that related specifically to them, and one thing he thought of shocked him. So, naturally, he voiced his idea.

"I'd pro'lly be doing what I'm doing right now." The dark-haired cub rolled onto his side, and flung his arm over Quill's stomach, snuffling down into her shoulder. She giggled in response, hugging him back. She couldn't see his face anymore, but she knew she had made him sad. Well, not sad really. It was too long ago to still be really sad about it, but she had made the little wolves in his head run around and make him think.

Silence descended over them like a heavy fur, comforting but isolating. The world was quiet; not a bird stirred in the trees, a mouse scratch in the grass or wolf nose about in the undergrowth. Realizing the unnatural quiet, Quill wondered if it was a good idea to head back to the Hurst, where she could find Flamefern and stay safe, because right now the silence was a little disquieting.