Finally, finally... the bandages were gone, the muscles healed. His right arm obeyed his commands for the first time in over a month, though the sensation in his fingertips would never return.

Even before the sun crested the crown of the morning, the Ranch's wolfboy rose and moved toward his closet, shuffling through the garments there. His fingers stopped at a familiar patch of roughness: the deer-hide garment he had worn on his arrival here. Thanks to Martha's generosity and skill with a needle, he now possessed many more atrractive and comfortable clothes, but he had never been able to completely let go of that last link to his wilder life. It... held comfort, and recently he had felt himself in need of comfort. So, in the darkness of his room, he pulled on a long-sleeved shirt of homespun and pulled the worn leather garment over top, the familiar scent of the tattered shirt putting him instantly at ease. He fastened the sheath of his knife round his waist to finish it off.

He then moved toward the screen door, his blessing. It allowed him access to the outside without disturbing the others of the household this early. His feet carried him out into the yard, staring at the moon as it descended past the curve of the earth. As the pink blush of the sky spoke of sunrise, he drew Torgny and began going through his morning exercises, though with less vigor than usual. His muscles still had not regained all of their former strength, so it was best to start off with the easier exercises and work up to them.

Two hours later, he was still at it. If he could just keep moving, he could forget... forget that Elder Brother was still missing.

"John? JOHNATHON!" Martha's voice rang out loudly, but did not carry a note of urgency or alarm. It sounded... well, it sounded more of annoyance and frustration than anything. When he failed to respond, Martha shook her head and gave up. By the lack of boots at the doormat, she figured pretty well were he was; out hunting mushrooms. Normally, she would have been furious at him for leaving without doing the chores, but ever since the death of Mark, she relented a lot on her anger.

"Well, someone has to feed the animals." She sighed to herself, slipping into her own boots. Before heading out the door, she grabbed a bag of cat food and headed outside.

As she made her way across the expanse of yard that led to the Barn, she was greeted by the ever-present Nivi. Chirping out little half-meows, the orange tom trailed after, tail held pleasantly high in the air. Soon enough, brother Elf joined the parade, sauntering behind Nivi with hungry eyes. Despite his bigger size, Elf's meows might as well come from a little kitten, for as squeaky and quiet as they were.

Halfway to her destination, Martha spotted Tahmores. Shifting the bag of food against her hip, she turned to face him, "Tahmores! Say, mind I can interrupt your workout for a few minutes? John's gone out and left all the animals hungry again this morning." She asked, with a grinning smile on her face. Of course, getting help from the boy wasn't her only agenda. She had senced that something had been bothering Tah lately, and was going to try and figure out what that might be.

Nivi and Elf, dismayed that Martha had stopped, quickly converged upon her legs. Meowing all the more plantively, they rubbed and nuzzled against her.

Back, forward, swing... develop, flip, and up...

And then... Martha's voice broke the silence of the morning. He looked up, startled to find her so near, but he gave her a half-smile and sheathed his knife, coming toward her with hands outstretched to take the bag of food. His soft voice came, though he tried to make it sound cheerful. Sure. He must have left before the dawn, for I've been up at least that long.

He loosed a purr to Nivi and Elf, his smile becoming a little warmer. Cats... they were unworried about the world's great problems and the thoughts of men. As long as their bellies were full, their young were safe, and they had a warm sunbeam, most felines were happy creatures. What simple pleasures.

"Thank you." She responded, as Tahmores took the bag, "Him and those mushrooms, I don't doubt he'd get up that early to start searching. At least we should have a good dinner tonight, for as long as he's been out looking for them." Martha began to head for the Barn now, walking at an easy pace. She had gone over in her mind how she might bring the subject up, but could really find no easy way to do it. So, after a moment of silence, she just put it out, "Tah, is everything alright? I don't mean to pry at you... but you've seemed a little down lately."

Nivi happily transfered himself to Tahmores, nuzzling against his legs and purring loudly now.

Elf stopped and looked up at the teen, big eyes half-narrowed as if in suspision. Although he didn't join his brother in greeting Tah, Elf gave a more exuberant meow in 'reply' to the purr.

Thamores gave her that half-smile again, tearing open the bag of food and pouring it into the proper container for the cats. A friendly meow was given to Elf, who seemed to need a little encouragement, and he knelt down, petting Nivi breifly before rising to follow Martha to the barn.

Her words caused him to look up, startled at being read so deeply, and most boys his age would have denied that anything was wrong. But Tahmores was not most boys, by any streatch of the imagination. So he sighed and ran his left hand back through his hair, mussing it a bit as he thought.

Finally, he spoke a little haltingly, not looking at her. Brother's gone. He... went out one night to greet a local pack and... he was supposed to come back. He's never not come back before. There was a note of sadness in his voice, fighting the frightened tears that wanted to burst out of him. What could have happened to keep Brother away this long? Had he been hurt, killed? Brother was... he was closer than a brother. Losing him would be like... like losing an arm, or an eye.

Like a metal to a magnet, the two toms were drawn in to the food. So eager to eat, they were head-down in the bowl even as Tahmores was still pouring it in. Not minding as cat kibble bounced and slid off the tops of their heads, they munched happily on their meal.

Martha folded her arms together, her eyebrows drawing in slightly with worried thought. The first thing that ran through her mind was... well, death. If a pet went missing, it was almost always to blame on the Legendaries. Striving to offer him some sort of hopeful information, the woman recalled a similar situation, "I'm sure he's fine, Tahmores. Stallis, he did the same thing. One day, he just went missing... we all assumed the worst had happened. We looked everywhere, but could not find him. And then, one day, when the Ranch was being attacked.... he just showed up again. With a family." A smile was offered, although she had left out a few facts. One being that Stallis was gone for two years, and that his sister Mesena, who had disappeared along with him, never made it back. "Maybe you can take Nass or Stable out riding and look for him?" She suggested next, speaking of their two horses.

Martha's thought followed his own exactly. That was his worst fear, of course. That Brother would... Her words did help him some though, until she suggested taking out Nass or Stable. That brought a surprised, kind of sardonic smile to his face, and he turned to her, voice a little laughing. I never did learn to ride a horse, Hernes. They're so... high. He shuddered just a little, for he was a creature of the ground, and had never understood what attraction others had for height. He wasn't acrophobic exactly, but heights DID make him uncomfortable.