The familiar pull met them before the nursery came into sight. 🌱
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 91
THE OLD WAY HOME 🌿
The journey took the rest of that day and the first light of the next. They shared the plate between fresh flippers and used the covered detour round the empty hunting patch.
At the archive branch, TurboTAD paused. The two seasoned reeds still braced the folded entrance. They had saved what remained inside and shut themselves out.
Finley saw him looking.
“Leave it,” he said gently.
TurboTAD did.
Nearer home, short, uneven draws tugged against them. He recognised the unhappy rhythm. It had been waiting while they searched.
A reed basket bobbed round the next bend. Its carrier stared at the plate, then at their faces.
“Did you find it?”
Finley nodded.
She turned so quickly that two stalks escaped her basket. Zale caught one. The other sailed past his ear.
“Tell Sora we’re coming,” TurboTAD called.
“Everyone’s going to know!”
By the nursery approach, small shapes were gathering behind Brink.
TurboTAD searched for Mira. He looked twice before a familiar voice came from below him.
“You’re late.”
She had slipped through the gap beneath Brink and caught TurboTAD’s harness, as though she meant to tow him the remaining distance herself.