Joy was gonna find his other mom. He was going to find Fira. He just had to! He had to know for sure if she's alive...or if she's dead.

So he set off. Surely the best place to look would be Polaris? That was where he had found her, all those cycles ago. She probably hadn't gone far. Might even be near their old den. The thought sent a pang through his heart. Oh, how he longed to be able to go back to simpler times when both his moms were alive and he had his sister with him.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could do this. Just had to find his mom, and then...then he'd have something.

But the more he looked, the more he worried. Finally, he came across the river's edge. The last place he wanted to look, but seemingly the most likely. He walked along there carefully, looking for any trace, anything, of Fira. Of his mom. Anything...

He was about to give up - maybe she was in some other cave? - when he noticed something. A maw sit sit gem, nestled in a skull, surrounded with a couple of other bones. He felt his heart freeze in his chest. He knew it. He just knew this was once his mom. Slowly, he walked closer, trying to keep the tears gathering in his eyes at bay. But as he touched the gem with his nose, briefly, they came pouring down.

He curled up around them and sobbed. He sobbed for all there was and all there could have been. He sobbed for his mothers, for his sister that was surely also dead. He sobbed for all who knew them, for all who knew they were dead, and those that didn't.

He lay there for a while, until his eyes had finally dried up, and he fell asleep, head resting beside the skull of his mother.

-exit Joy-