Mother and Baby

"She's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful," Doris cooed as she held her swaddled child in her arms. A child that seemed a bit unhappy, judging by the look upon her face, but her mother still admired that small face.

A deep chuckle escaped the man close by. "She's gorgeous, dearest. Although I think fawning over our little one may only delay the inevitable. Look at her face," David pointed to his daughter's sour look. "She looks like a camel about to spit at you."

"You hush, I know." Doris retorted, flashing a look to her husband before looking back to their child. "But she's adorable even when she's pouting." At that, Doris happily pressed a kiss to her baby's forehead, only to offer an Eskimo kiss shortly after. While little Calpurnia couldn't reciprocate, she did give a little indignant grunt, something of which only had her mother giggling in response before wandering over to the other side of the den.

"I wish we could get a house, like all the other humans do. It'd be so much easier to leave her alone, I think." She murmured. "And we'd be closer to the stores, too, and you could trade your furs in town and go home in town, too."

"You know we can't do that, Doris." David replied with a shake of his head. "As much as I'd love to, getting too close to the humans will only cause trouble, especially when we're trying to build back what they've destroyed."

"I know..."

There was a silence that passed between them. All that could be heard was the sounds of the wind whistling through the oak trees outside their den. A wolf's den, well hidden amidst a vast and plentiful forest. A safe haven... something the both of them knew they needed.

"But we will love her, even if we don't have a house." Doris chimed after a time, looking back to her little girl. "Yes, dear. We will love you wherever we are, and for ever and ever and ever~"

---

For ever and ever...

Calpurnia was now older. Much older... and she could only wonder now, as she looked upon the very graves she had buried her parents in, if what they said was true even when they were no longer with her at all.

"I miss you."

By this time, that baby had grown into a woman, a woman that looked young but had lived quite a lifetime already. She barely remembered much of what she had done with her parents within the small and precious time she had been with them. But those words often clung to her mind, the echo of her mother's laugh and the blurry image of her father's smile. The words rung loudest of all when she recollected her parents or visited their burial place.

Life would be so different if they were there, if they had lived.

But they were gone.

And as much as she wanted them back, nothing would bring them back, not now. Not ever.

They had unbeknowingly left their child alone in this world.

And alone she still was, to this very day.