DOOM LOOKED AT the house for several moments, his expression both troubled and relieved. “Everything looks normal,” he said in a low voice to himself. As he took the few prey he was able to find to the slaughter shed to put away, he shook his head sharply. “So why do I still have this nagging feeling something is horribly wrong?” Pausing at the door into the house, he squinted at the forge, thin tendrils of smoke rising from the chimney, not the heavy plumes when the bellows breathed into the forge. “Strange. I don’t hear any hammering.” He detoured to head to the forge before even bothering to put his gear away.

“Kerk?” Doom called, concern in his voice. “Are you all right? I didn’t hear your hammer on the—” He blinked. “Pack Leader?” He looked towards the street but saw no others. “Where is the rest of your hunting pack?”

The wolflen inclined his head in greeting. “Doom-Not-Demon. It is good to see you home safe.” He straightening away from the wall he had been leaning on. Kerk, half seated on a bench, stood as well so he could turn towards the gromek. “I came alone. My business today was a private, personal matter.”

“Tiwaz has been…” Kerk’s voice drifted off, shaking his head mournfully. “She has not been doing well while you’ve been gone.”

“Ti is sick?” the gromek asked in alarm, turning to head back to the house. He stopped when Pack Leader caught him by the arm to stop him. He met the wolflen’s eyes for a moment and turned back. “What’s wrong?”

“My son tells me an emptiness in her heart torments her,” he stated with gravity in his tones. “Smith and I both have seen the terrible sadness that can overwhelm a soul. It has affected wolflen, humans, every race.” He crossed his arms, his expression troubled. “This is something more. Tracker said he does not believe she has told you the extent of her torment. It shames her deeply.”

Doom walked over to the rack where several unfinished items of Tiwaz’s rested, touching one lightly. “The emptiness? She still feels it? I thought when the glyphs were removed, once we found a home…” He slammed his fist into the shelf support, rattling everything and putting several cracks in the wood. “I should have known something more was wrong than just trying to acclimate to freedom and a place strange to us. Damn it all, I’m an idiot.”

“No, you are not,” Kerk scolded the towering gromek. “Just because you’re the biggest person in Bralden don’t make you the oldest or most experienced. That you and Tiwaz did as well as you had on your own is a testament to your stubbornness, but as you said, freedom is hard.” He hit his chest with a fist. “I know. I had been there, remember? And I will be the first to admit, I didn’t have it nearly as hard as either of you.”

“But I should have known something was wrong. We’ve known each other longer than we hadn’t. I promised I would always be here for her when she needed me and I wasn’t.” In growing frustration, he punched the support again. He winced at his momentary lack of self-control when he cracked the support and collapsing the shelves in on themselves. Forcing himself to calm, he asked, “Where is she?”

“We do not know.” Pack Leader sighed. “For the past several days, she has not come to the village for lessons. Tracker seeks her out because he worries about her and pack-mates take care of each other. She told my son she had work to do today in the forge, so she would not be coming for hunting lessons. Shaman said because of her reasons for wanting to learn to hunt, to miss so much training was against her nature. He believes something is very wrong. I came to speak to her about our concerns.” He frowned. “But when I arrived, she was not here.”

“And that made me worried.” Kerk knelt, picking up the fallen items to avoid Doom’s fearsome visage. Knowing the gromek was not angry with him did not make his appearance any less unnerving. “She had left the house little before dawn just as I was waking up. Said she had to leave early to go with Tracker to check traps.” He and Pack Leader traded paternal, concerned expressions. “Seems she lied to both of us.”

“Ti lied?” Doom whispered in stunned disbelief. “She never lies. Not convincingly.”

“It was not convincing,” both Pack Leader and Kerk stated in unison.

Kerk explained, “She’s usually been going places to brood and Tracker had sought her out when she did not arrive on time.”

“I am here because neither I nor Shaman believed her,” the wolflen chieftain pointed out. “She is pack-kith to my son. He would know if something was wrong.”

The men looked up as Tracker ran into the doorjamb to stop his headlong run. “Cat-Sister,” he panted, straightening. He looked to Doom, his worry mirroring the gromek’s. “Left Bralden.” The others reacted with dismay and alarm.

“Do you know which direction she went?” Tracker nodded, still breathing heavily. Doom moved towards the door. “Show me. I have to close as much distance as I can before sunset.” The gromek scowled when Pack Leader got in front of the pair. “I need to find her!”

Pack Leader looked to his son. “I assume she left at dawn.” Tracker nodded to the implied question. “It is now late afternoon. Even if you leave now and catch up to her, you will need to rest before making the return journey. But she has learned well. You will need help to locate her.”

“So? Tracker was coming with me, right?” The younger wolflen nodded, standing up straight despite breathing heavily. Still, Pack Leader blocked them from leaving. “We’re wasting time standing here!” the gromek growled.

“You need supplies, Doom-Not-Demon,” the older wolflen pointed out patiently. “You only just returned from your journey. Tracker has nothing with him.” He looked to his son. “Tell me where you saw her trail.” When the younger wolflen had, the elder turned and howled long and loud. Answering howls echoed throughout the town.

Doom looked quizzically at Tracker when the younger wolflen visibly relaxed. “Doom-Not-Demon and Cat-Sister part of tribe. One of family. Tribe helps.”

“You looked beyond surface differences and found deeper similarities between all who live in Bralden,” Pack Leader stated, gaze turned towards the sky. “When we look at you, we see you not for what we imagined you were, but for what you truly are.” The chieftain looked at Doom. “Children who needed a family.”

Tracker put his hand over his heart. “Tribe is family.” Both wolflen looked up as the howls resumed. Perplexed humans emerged from homes and shops, looking around in bewilderment, recognizing the urgency in the tones, but ignorant of the specifics.

“Go to the edge of town where you will leave from,” Pack Leader instructed the two. “Snow Star’s pack will meet you there with gear and supplies to last several days if necessary.” He stepped out of their path. “Now go. Find your pack-sister.” The pair needed no further encouragement.