I haven't come to say I'm sorry

but I swear I'm on your side

He’s lost. It’s a hard thing to admit, but he knows that it is so. They had walked Nairne to the edge of the Falls and then come back, where mama had lain down to take a nap, Aubri and Rhonen beside her. Afterwards, mama had said, when they woke up, they would go find his father. He hadn’t met his father yet – he’d asked mama why that was and she’d laughed, explaining with a strange tone in her voice that she hadn’t realized that he and Aubri were on their way when she’d come to bring Nairne to the Falls. But she’d reassured them that their father would be happy to meet them – just as soon as they got back to him.

But anyway, mama and Aubri had slept forever, and so when he’d gotten too bored, Rhonen had thought he’d just go a few feet away and get some water. Then there’d been that funny lizard he’d chased, and the butterfly, and the horse with the funny walk. And now he’s hopelessly lost. A child, alone in the meadow – the reality is just starting to set in. “Mama?” he says this word cautiously, looking side to side at the fields full of strangers. “Aubri!” This more insistently – he loves his mama, and his sister Nairne, but he feels more connected to his twin. Surely she feels him missing.

Surely someone will come and find him.