The Tangle hips that could bear you a buffalo

“I missed you and thought about you, too. All the time,” Eirlys murmured brokenly. She wasn’t sure if Ceallach had continued to think about Mallaidh and Roarke as much as she did — their lost siblings were a subject that didn’t bring anything but pain, and so they didn’t speak of them except on rare occasions. She comforted herself with Furi’s nearness and realized at once that there was a bright side to all this. Nuzzling her sister and drawing back to meet her eyes, Eirlys offered a genuine smile that trembled at the edges with emotion.

Her own eyes were alight with excitement as she suggested, “But you’re here now!” and immediately started in on a rollercoaster of words. “I’m not a good tracker like papa or äiti but I know I can lead you back the right way. We could go right now! We could go back and be a family again.” She didn’t stop to think that Malliadh had set down roots wherever she was; what she knew now and saw now painted her memory of their meeting. Yeah, yeah. Now that she thought of it, Mallaidh had looked so sad and lonely, wandering through the woods. She was probably thinking about the family she’d lost. Well, now Eirlys was going to fix everything!

“Come on, Mallaidh!” she urged, swiping at her tears with a dirty forepaw and leaving streaks of mud on her visage. “Mama — Hemlock will be so happy to see you again, and Ceallach — well, he might be a little shocked and quiet at first, because he thought you were gone forever, but I know he’ll be happy once he realizes it’s you.” She bounded forward a pace or two, then circled back to her shell-shocked sibling with a teary smile. “Let’s go!”