Summerveil's usually sunny face drained of all color. "What? No...Deerwise isn't dead. He can't be!" The expectant elfess gripped her stomach, trying to fathom the unfathomable. "It isn't true! Deerwise is _not_ dead, " she stated in a tone meant more to convince herself than the elves gathered around her. She raised her trembling hands to her face. "He's the strongest hunter in the tribe. He can't be dead. Not Deerwise...not my lifemate." She sighed nervously and wrung her hands as she looked into the faces of her griefstricken tribemates. "If I keep talking, it isn't true...I just have to keep talking forever." His last words to her echoed over and over in her mind. "Remember, I promised little Dreamer those ringneck feathers...I'll be back in a hand of days, you'll see..."

In her heart of hearts, to the depths of her soul, Summerveil knew it to be true. She had felt...something...almost like an echo of pain, and then she had felt _him_ all around her at once as warmth and love made the air shimmer. Her soulname was whispered to her, like the gentle brush of a lover's kiss, and then...nothing - a terrible black emptiness that had chilled her to the bone. Refusing to accept the truth she already knew, Summerveil closed her ears to the mournful howls of the wolves at Basin Rock as they carried the news of the tragedy from Broadback, Deerwise's bond, and the other hunters' wolves. The remaining tribemates had gathered at Basin Rock to wait for the mournful procession as they returned from a fruitless hunt, bearing home the body of Summerveil’s soulmate.

As the shadowy forms filtered through the trees on the opposite side of the silver meadow, Summerveil dropped to her knees. "NOOOOOOOOOOO," she screamed as her eyes rested upon Deerwise's battered and lifeless husk, borne home to her on the back of his faithful bond. "High Ones, NOOOO!!" She lurched to her feet and ran clumsily across the meadow, her huge belly hampering her stride. ~**RTAR!!! High Ones!! RTAR!!! Please come back to me!! RTAAAAAAR!!!!**~ Summerveil's anguished mental cries echoed in the darkness: Deerwise's soul had long since taken flight. Her sobs filled the night air as she knelt beside Broadback, clutching her dead lifemate's hand....