“Do you have reason to believe this will bring you back into the King’s grayces?”

I paused, the haughty voice sounding so different from Granny that I almost ran off, but curiosity rooted me to the spot like an Eldertree seeking minerals.

“Something is coming. We need to understand it, and this is the only way we’ve found.”

“Another world? This is folly. The King has not meant for us to intrude on others’ worlds since the Tear, and we should not question his ruling.”

“It remains my orders, Mother. Without this… we risk being labeled traitors. Duke Verity is calling for my head on a pike since I caught him in the lie, and he holds sway over the majority of the council. Until things change, there is no other way.”

Grandma’s voice softened. “There is always another way…” her voice grew too soft for me to hear.

Then the hair raised on the back of my neck. I turned to find Pa behind me.

His eyebrows rose and I toed the ground as he scratched the beard he’d been trying to grow. He said it was itchy, and I was glad I didn’t have facial hair.

“I—umm—was just going to get water from the… the well,” I said, keeping my eyes on the ground. I snuck a glance up, and he was giving me his straight look and raised his eyebrows higher. He somehow always knew when I was lying… or evading the truth. As a kid, I hated it.

“And you just happened to hear us and decided to stop, eh, little cub?” I looked up hopefully, seeing his eyes fighting between amusement and frustration.

I gave him my biggest grin, and the amusement won out. “What am I to do with you, my girl?” He rubbed the top of my hand with his fist, and I batted him off, sticking my tongue out.

Grandma harrumphed from behind us, but she had a smile on her face. “She takes after her father grandfather. Sneaky creatures, the whole lot of ya!”

Jack waddled out from his room, his eyes half-closed and a grumpy look on his face. I scooped the bugger up, tickling him until his eyes brightened and he laughed.

“Ria, stops its!” he squealed, his laughter delighting my soul.

I set him on my shoulders as we went down the steps, and he laughed while I galloped him around like a horse.

Momma grinned, her blue eyes sparkling as she wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ve raised a rabble of animals.”

Pa snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, snorting against her neck like a pig until she squealed for him to stop and he spun her around.

His eyes were alight with joy as he leaned in. I covered Jack’s eyes and looked away. Jill giggled, her wide eyes on Momma and Papa.

I threw Jack into a pile of soft furs and darted for Jill, hiding her eyes.

“Momma! Papa! You know better,” I said, averting my eyes as they came up for air.

Pa’s deep chuckle rumbled through the cottage. “How did we raise such a squeamish daughter?”

I huffed out an annoyed breath as Momma extracted herself from his embrace. “Must come from your side of the family,” Momma said, raising a brow at him before she returned to bringing food from the cubbyhole of a kitchen. Pa followed her, and they came back a little breathless, but both carrying platters. My mouth watered at the aroma even as I rolled my eyes at my parents while I got Jack wrangled. Right when I turned to pick up Jill, who raised her arms and said, “Uppy, uppy,” Jack climbed on the table, sending his chair toppling to the ground with a loud crash.

I shook my head as he crawled toward Pa, reaching out for the plates. He overbalanced and tipped. I released a strangled yell, jumping up from straightening Jill’s homespun dress, but I was much too late.

Pa caught him with one hand, juggling the platter with his other hand. He spun around and plopped Jack back on his seat, the boy clapping and giggling in glee, then set the food in front of me with a flourish and a wink.

I slumped back in my seat, breathing out a sigh and feeling years older than my fourteen.

“Relax, little cub,” Pa said, chuckling when I kicked him under the table after he'd sat down.

He grabbed Momma’s hand, and she sent him a dazzling smile that made her look like an otherworldly being with her pale cheeks and sparkling blue eyes. She had a spread of freckles along her nose and smile lines around her mouth and eyes with slender cheekbones and a pert nose.

We talked and joked, Pa feeding Jack and Momma feeding Jill, and I cut up with Pa and made sure Jack’s grubby hands were kept from the syrup and jams as hot cakes were passed around with bacon and eggs. Laughter filled the room and warmed the entire cottage with its light.

Why are you crying? It was a happy memory, Ran says as I push my forehead into my pillow. I sometimes forget she doesn’t always understand human emotions. The way of the wolf is one of acceptance and survival. Not reminiscing on times long past.

It is… bittersweet, sis. It hurts, but in a good way.

How can one hurt in a good way?

It’s like the aching of muscles after a long hunt. A remembrance of where we came from so we can grow. It’s a grief and a joy, a knowledge of things that will only live on in memory.

She huffs. I’m unsure I like this… reminisce.

I chuckle, though it sounds more like a sob. “Me too, sis. Me too.”

“Why is Pa so happy when he’s with us? I can see the pain he hides, can feel it,” I whispered to Grandma as she showed me the next stitch along the cloak where I was darning the hem.

Grandma’s stitches paused, and she looked up at me with an oddly piercing gaze in her brown eyes before looking back down at the fabric and sewing an odd contraption along the hood. It almost looked like a place to hook a mask or a cowl, but I wondered what she needed with such a contraption.

“Your father is much like his father before him. He has a good, soft heart that is led by an unerring sense of right and wrong. Much like you.” She tweaked my nose with a sad smile. “He has seen much, and because of that, he knows just how short life is. He lives each moment as if it may be his last, choosing joy over sorrow and life over pain. He lives, dear, with a zest for life made all the brighter because of the pain burning in his soul.” I could sense her pride in him at those words, almost feeling the hint of sorrow mixed with bright, proud love that would take one’s breath away.

“But enough of that. He is leaving tomorrow, yes? Then let us take a note from him and enjoy today.”

I nodded looking out where Pa was playing with Jack and Jill while Momma sat and watched, a sad smile on her face.

Live for today. I could do that.

“What goes ‘ka-boom’ and fries a hair?” I glanced up from the hem I had stopped sowing and raised a brow at Grandma. She grinned, and I knew from experience she wouldn’t reply until I guessed.

I sighed. “A jackoolope fry?”

“No. A hair-brained noble.”

She cackled and slapped her knee while I begrudgingly shook my head and tried not to smile at her terrible jokes that made zero sense.

She was quite the woman. You remind me of her.

My heart lights at the words. She taught me much. If only you could’ve met her.

I am, here in memory. She lives on through you, Aria. They both do.

The words seep into my soul. Ran has told me this over and over… but it’s never truly sunk in just how much their teachings and lessons and just being with them changed me. Molded me. Made me who I am and who I yet strive to be.

I will always carry them in my heart and soul with the hope others will see them through me.

I fight where the memory takes us next, fight against where I feel we’re going as Ran takes me to the place in my mind I had buried long ago. She wants to know… and the next moment I stop fighting and let the dream-like memory take me to a past, to where this began, to where we Bonded.