Windflower tugged at the edge of his cloak and frowned with concentration. 
There was no denying it. The hem wasn’t straight. He pouted and glanced around 
his cold rocky surroundings, but everyone had left. There was simply no one 
available to bear witness to the shoddy workmanship. He would simply have to take 
it up with the chief when she returned. Surely, someone would fix it once it was 
pointed out to them, but then again, most of the wolf blooded ones had no 
appreciation for the finer points in life. He felt something tugging on the fabric and 
glanced up in time to see one of the little savages stuffing the end of his cloak into 
their mouth. “Stop that!” he snapped and tugged it out of grubby little hands. He 
wrinkled his nose in disgust at the damp fabric and turned his back firmly to the 
cubling who seemed determined to destroy his wardrobe. He contemplated leaving 
his perch to see if he could find Tye, who was conspicuous in his absence, but 
remembered the wolf chief’s veiled warnings if anything should happen to the 
immature brood that had been left with him. With a put upon sigh, he rose to 
conduct a head count. There was the little wardrobe destroyer, and napping nearby, 
it’s twin. That left the curly headed one, Turtle, the healer’s daughter, although 
where she had gotten such a horrible name was beyond him. He glanced around 
the cave, but the most mobile of his charges seemed to be no where in residence.  
He cocked his head to the side and reevaluated, but the cub did not reappear. “This 
could be bad,” he mussed out loud. 
	To find the missing one, it seemed that he would have to leave the other two 
alone. He glanced about, looking for a solution. The opening to another chamber in 
the cave was raised several feet from the cave floor, and continued back several 
more feet at this height before dropping down into a deeper dead end cave. It 
seemed the natural choice to confine these two. If they should happen to get 
themselves hurt in there, well, it certainly couldn’t be considered his fault. 
Unfortunately, moving them required actually touching them... There was no help 
for it, the things he did for love. Grimacing slightly and careful not to let the 
cublings touch his neatly brushed tunic, Windflower moved Foxglove and 
Nightwhisper into the other chamber, absently tossing one of the quaint sleeping 
furs after them so he couldn’t be accused of neglect.  
	That problem solved, although why he hadn’t thought of it earlier was a 
mystery, Windflower returned his attention to finding the missing one. He 
supposed it would be too much to ask for the cub to reply to being called, but it 
was worth a try. **Turtle. Cubling, where are you?** Windflower held himself still 
and ready for a few more heartbeats, but no reply was forthcoming. Now it 
seemed he would be forced to physically search for the cub. How had he let himself 
get talked into this? He stepped out of the cave into the cool night air. He shivered 
slightly and pulled his cloak more closely about himself. It seemed that he was 
going to require a nice rabbit fur lining when he had his hem repaired. White, of 
course, otherwise it might clash, and he would rather freeze than have a clashing 
wardrobe. He glanced at the ground as he had seen Tye do many times when 
tracking his prey. It looked remarkably like dirt... with a few rocks thrown in. How 
was this supposed to tell him anything? He frowned in concentration and squatted 
down, making sure to keep his cloak from dragging the ground too much. From 
this closer vantage point he was able to see.. yet more dirt. This was getting him 
nowhere, sweeping his hair and cloak back over his shoulder in a dramatic gesture 
for an unseen audience, Windflower frowned pensively into the distance. Where 
was Tye? Surely he couldn’t have gotten far if he had refrained from going on the 
Hunt with the other adults of the tribe. Closing his eyes, he reached out. **Tye? I 
need help...** He held his breath hoping that the younger elf had picked up the 
urgency of the situation in the short message.
	**What is it this time?** came the impatient response. 
	Windflower smiled. He could always depend on Tye, no matter how much 
the other elf denied it. **One of the cubs is missing.**
	**I’ll be there soon.**
	Windflower relaxed. The situation was well in hand. He was really quite 
good at this cub watching thing despite everything. He watched the edge of the 
trees until a dark shadow separated itself from the surrounding darkness and 
approached. Windflower carefully collected his cloak and nimbly scrambled down 
the tumbled boulders to the forest floor to meet the hunter. Tye slipped off his 
wolf’s back as Windflower approached and glared up at the tall pale figure of 
Windflower. “Well?”
	Windflower brushed his hand through Tye’s wild mahogany locks 
affectionately ignoring the fact that the other elf pulled away. “She simply 
disappeared! I took my eyes off of her for a few moments and the next thing I 
knew she was gone!” Windflower gestured dramatically to illustrate the 
suddenness of this disappearance. “I tried to track her as you said should always 
be done, but all I could see was dirt. You don’t suppose trolls could have gotten 
her do you?”
	Tye rolled his eyes. “The dirt is always there, Windflower.”
	“Really? Oh yes! I knew that, it seems to have this annoying habit of 
creeping onto my clothes, it’s really disturbing. Is there any way we can get rid 
of it?”
	“No.”
	“I was afraid of that. On to the problem at hand, the missing cub, you’re
 sure that trolls didn’t get her?”
	“Yes, where did you look for her?”
	“Well, I haven’t.. quite... you’re so much better at that type of thing than I 
am.”
	Tye closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. “Which cub is missing?”
	“The healer’s cub, the one with the curly hair.”
	“Turtle.”
	“Yes, yes, that one.”
	Tye turned away from Windflower and began to climb determinedly 
through the rocks. Windflower scrambled to keep up. “Where are we going?”
	“To look in her home cave.”
	“Ahhh.... that’s brilliant! The perfect place to look.”
	“Which you should have done instead of calling me.”
	Windflower made a noncommittal humming sound. Why should he have 
looked himself? He much preferred his present company. Tye ducked into the 
opening of the cave that the bubbly healer had claimed as her own with 
Windflower following close behind. The interior of the cave was a mess. Furs were 
strewn everywhere about the floor and herbs were scattered here and there. In the 
middle of the mess, Turtle sat contentedly with her mother’s stone bowl adding 
random herbs to an already noxious mixture. At their entrance, the curly head came 
up alertly. “Sick?” she chirped, “Turtle can fix! See! Like Mommy!”
	“What a mess! Your mother will be rather annoyed with you, I think.”
	“You were the one that was supposed to be watching her.”
	Windflower shrugged. “The cub is alive, isn’t it? I’m not her keeper. Her 
mother should have taught her better.”
	Tye scooped Turtle up from the nest she had made for herself and thrust her 
into Windflower’s arms. “Well, it’s not my problem.” He stalked back out the cave 
entrance and scrambled back down the sloop.
	“Tye, where are you going?”
	“Back out. I’ll be back when sun comes up.”
	“But..”
	“Don’t call me again.”
	Windflower sighed and watched Tye disappear. He lowered himself to sit 
on a boulder at the cave mouth, and rested his cheek against Turtle’s curly mane. 
“Someday, cub, someday...” Turtle simply blinked her eyes and yawned.  
Grown-ups made little sense to her anyway. She patted Windflower’s face with one 
herb smudged hand and curled up in his lap to sleep. It had been a busy night, and 
she was tired.