Caleb raced ahead, setting a quick pace. Brance’s leg bothered him but he ignored the pain and concentrated on the tip of Caleb’s tail, swishing through the shadows ahead. They moved silently, paws padding over the grass with just a whisper of their passing. The underbrush seemed to swallow them whole. Above, the moon winked down at them from between branches heavy with leaves; another month and those branches would be bare. Brance felt the coming winter in his bones, a hollow ache like arthritis that left him numb inside.
As he followed Caleb, he let his mind wander to the months ahead. He would need to find somewhere to settle down for the winter, an isolated plot of land where he could build a proper home for Caleb, where they could live out the rest of their days far from the war and
