It was ruddy cold in camp. He had decided to stay at the hunting cabin and he was glad that it had a word burning fireplace because for the second or third time in his long life Matori was actually cold. It must be a front from Zena he could only imagine how they were doing. They were better equipped of course to handle cold he wondered how his aunt and uncle were and his grandparents whom because of their location he rarely saw. He felt old to have grandparents as well he had kids of his own, kids that could at any moment make him a grandparent, now wouldn't that be something?

He put another log on the fire to fend off the cold. The plus side being that it was pretty and made very soothing noises as it crackled and burned. They didn't have much call to use wood very often, usually it was restricted to storm season as the area stayed pretty temperate being tropical and right on the ocean. He stared pensively into the flames. He wondered what Terrwyn was up to. He thought pretty soon they might both want another set of kids but after triplets he didn't want to rush the poor girl. Her evil ex had stayed out of her life after finding out that the kids were most definitely his. He smiled fondly as he remembered the terrifying hectic time and how stressed he was trying his best to get them home without blowing their very convincing cover with his giant blue self. He was very proud that Tathy had chosen to follow his path if in a slightly different way with his bees. He was proud of the other two as well for following their hearts which was all he ever wanted for them; to follow their hearts and be happy. He loved his family and he loved that they liked the ranch just as much as he did.

He looked out the window of the hunting cabin. He himself needed something new and exciting in his life, maybe he would take his Dad up on a few more of those long travel jobs. Terr could come or look after herself as she wished and the boys themselves were old enough to be pretty autonomous. The truth was that Thal was bored and he needed something a bit more exciting in his life. Especially before he had more kids as little ones tied one down. He should take on some challenges that he hadn't dabbled in in a long time. He would talk to his father and brother about it and see what they had going on. Time was what he had and he would make the most of it. But not right at this moment. Today was too cold for shenanigans and he was having a bit of a break from the ranch itself. All his projects were pretty much wrapped up.

"What do you think Zyr?" He tossed the tiny snaptrotter a treat. He kept a lot of them in his pocket, a habit that he had had since he was very small. It made him very popular with most critters. Though there were a few picky ones out there.

Being warm by the fire made him think of his Mom. He should check on her today and see if she wanted some tea. He didn't really have gossip which she also loved but well she could read his tea leaves and maybe tell him if this was a good idea or not.

It would involve a lot of travel and he wanted to make sure that it was in his best interest at this point to leave his family as mature and self sufficient as they were in the ranch ecosystem. Mom was wise and she was always so full of good advice. He still found it incredible that a little orphan from Matori was adopted by a shifter and started her own empire when she was of age with an older iceling from Oba of all places. He was so grateful that his parents had found each other and had fallen in love so that he could exist and find his own love in Terrwyn.

He doused the fire and tucked the baby snaptrotter in his coat. The little claws were sharp and ticklish but it was fine, at least he knew were Zyr was and that he wasn't in trouble. He set off at a brisk jog. He was a matorian through and through he was not overly fond of cold unless he took himself to Zena.

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