'I wish to know more about my mother', the Lyncan king said. 'I hope you can tell me about her, now that we both seem to be in an agreeable mood'.

His father sighed, thinking that this day was inevitable and that he could not keep putting this day off forever. Hector was no longer a child. He was a man, a Lyncan king, with his own pups. 'What do you remember about her?'

'I recall her vaguely. I know she was very kind to me and my elder brother, treating us with so much love and affection but suddenly, she started keeping away and I was told she had...