King Elk Forest become the thing i hate

Laurel's eyes widened when she heard that Spring had never left the Creek. The journey had seemed a lot longer when she was little, and it felt to her as if in all their journeys she'd never gotten closer to the Creek again; only further away. She wondered with a jolt why Reek would lead her back here — or was his internal compass as rubbish as hers, and didn't he know, either?

"The Creek's here?" she asked in disbelief, regarding Spring's question. "I thought we'd gone far away from it!" There was neither joy nor hate in her voice, only an indifferent surprise. "Are Casmir and Laika still here?" she asked quickly, not sure whether she hoped the answer to be yes or no.