Snow is flattened underfoot, a crunching sound that the boy hears through the howling wind. His head snaps in the direction of the noise, a step taken back. He begins to crouch as the sound grows louder. The boy can see the spray of snow as its sent flying.

Then a familiar scent passes his nose. Sweet and familiar and one he had known for eternity.

His mother appears in a gap between the trees. A threshold in the small sanctum the clearing made, she stood in its door. The boy's eyes sting as they begin to well. Heat flushing behind his eyes, across his cheeks, and in his throat as he chokes out a wordless cry to his mother. A sound of recognition.

She leaves that doorway quickly, passing the threshold with no need for initiation. She is there and she is close and she is here for him—!

She hovers over him, and the boy pauses, uncertain as to why. He looks to her, his breath held tightly within his chest. Why hadn't she taken him in her arms?

And then she does.

She does. She does. She does. She does.

I've found you.

A slow sob parts his lips. Caan had a tendency to cry, hadn't he? Whines hitched in his throat as he throws himself deeper in mothers embrace. His nose finds the hollow of her throat and he buries himself there. When the loudest of his wails left him, the boy whispers into his mother's fur.

Where did you go, mom?