Redwood focused as hard as he could on the wriggling kit in his mouth as he and bluebell made their way towards the border. It was easier to block out the wave of thoughts and feelings and pain that way - instead, instead he counted the spots on pineconekit’s back. They were the same size and shape as her mother’s - but she had 2 less - perhaps she would grow the others when she was older. If she ever got older. Redwood could feel her bones through her fur - harsh and brittle against his teeth. The drought had been hard on all of them, but at least pinecone’s brother, birch, had eaten what little food bluebell and him had been able to find.

The thicket of trees around them got denser as the group got closer, and bluebell turned to look at him as they both caught a particularly strong scent trail. Her eyes were wide, round and glassy, but Redwood could read them better than any other pair of eyes he’d ever seen, their deep green forming words in his mind without him having to try. ‘Are you sure about this?’ she asked, wordlessly, again. He nodded in reply, quick and unthinking, but his mate knew him well enough to see the flicker of doubt. She ignored it, as she had done before, and the group continued to make their way through the endless maze of trees.

They paused when they reached the border, staring silently into the clan. Pinecone, waking from her light slumber, mewed pitifully, and Redwood rocked his mouth back and forth in an attempt to calm her, but it was no use. The wind was sending chills through their fur, and even birchkit was starting to become restless. Bluebell’s eyes were wider than before now, despair easy to read in her gaze, and Redwood was on the brink of calling out to his family to tell them to go back when a voice cut through the whistle of the wind. “Who’s there? And why are you so close to our territory?”

It was a dark grey tom, his pelt dotted with splotches of darker colours and his gaze amber and hesitant. Redwood dipped his head in reply, and placed his kit on the floor before hi,, where it began to whimper and shiver. “We bring no harm, just hope that you will take and care for what we no longer can.” His voice was strong and dominant, but he was holding back shakes of emotion. The other Tom seemed to understand, and Redwood told him of their names. “We’ll be back for them, one day.” He continued, after bluebell had dropped birchkit, and the Tom (whose name, they learnt, was specklepelt) had taken both kits. “We promise.”

Specklepelt gave a nod in reply, before disappearing into his clan, leaving Redwood and bluebell alone, the family they had dreamed of disappearing into a sea of trees and boulders.