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"Glinty!"

She chased after the gold disc, caught it in her mouth and flew away toward the Rock.

Copper and Amber laughed and clapped their hands.

"There"
sighed Amber. "It's all going to be fine."

They turned as a figure came toward them from the house. Cedar, worrying about Copper and sensing something had happened, had come out to investigate. When he saw Amber, he ran to her and gathered her into his arms.

They stayed locked like that for several minutes while Copper watched, smiling and waiting. Then they opened their arms to her and she joined them.

"Stay here and be here for me, please," she begged. "I never want to have to do anything like this again. I need you both. I've been needing you for six years."

"I promise," said Amber and she kissed Copper's cheek.

"And I promise," said Cedar, kissing her other cheek.

Then Copper ran. It was too wonderful and too marvelous and too much.

She ran back to the kitchen and dropped into the rocking chair, picked up her knitting needles and cast on some stitches.

In her mind she pictured Amber and Cedar together and smiled.

Amber was warm at last.

Copper held her needles and waited, but nothing came. No
stitches, no
dick clack, click clack.
She stared at the thin metal needles in surprise. This had never happened before.

I can't knit, she thought. Where's my pearl and my plain and my looping the wool over? My fingers just won't do it.

She put the needles down beside her, realizing, oddly, that it didn't matter. It was the same as Ralick going, in a way. It just proved that big things had happened, and nothing was going to be the same again.

A tingling lightness spread from her toes and the tips of her fingers, all through her body. She felt so content: a warm, smiley feeling she had never had before.

I know what I want to knit. Nothing.

Nothing
because I'm quite finished, she thought happily. I've got all the bits I need to be complete. Ralick would be proud of me for not
knotting.
This is really the end.

Beside her in the wicker basket, the little wolf cub wriggled and snuggled beside his mother.

"Not the end," whispered the wolf cub quietly. "Nothing ever ends completely, Copper Beech, wait and see. Wait and see."

He grinned, and if Copper had seen it, she would have seen that the expression on his furry face was exactly like Ralick's.