Phoenix Maplewood Remember When

She waited in rigid silence, ears pressed forward and itching to hear. But her sister's answer tightened her throat, and the rest of Desna's words buzzed through the air without reaching the grey girl's ears. Her gaze drifted off her sister to penetrate the trees, as if something there held more interest for her. But Nanook didn't see the Maplewood, and Desna blurred out of focus like a fading dream. Nanook had concluded that if mother ever left, it would be to find their family. But by Desna's remark, mother wasn't bringing back papa or Xan, and finality bore a scorching hole in the hollow of her chest.

Something shifted in her sister then, a lilt to her voice Nanook had never heard from Desna before. The grey girl flicked her coppery gaze back to her sister with a kink of her head. Finding papa and Xan consumed her thoughts day and night; there was hardly a minute that went by where she did not think of them in some shape or form. It was all for her family, of course, Desna included, even if she did not share the same urge to find their missing members as Nanook. There was a longing in her sister's voice, a deflation that made Nanook feel bigger than she was, and Desna so much smaller. "We can't play yet." Nanook's answer came bluntly to her lips. Desna's longing would pass as soon as they found the others and brought them home. Her brows knit together, a look now second-nature to the polar child. "Not 'til we find papa and Xan."