Blackfeather Woods when you feel the world around you

He turns back in her direction and she watches him, ears cupped forward for his words. They’d been separated for several months, and all of a sudden there were four of them at her doorstep more or less. Things have changed, for both of them, and neither one of them wanted to admit it.
 
“When I left Aningan, I never thought I would see you again. Any of you. I…” she pauses, looking away. If she hadn’t left in the first place, they wouldn’t be here. Kove wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t even know Iliksis. But she also wouldn’t have three beautiful children and siblings that went through all the trouble to come her. “I had a whole life ahead without my family,” she adds, a little hoarse, and turning her head back toward him but her navy gaze remains on the ground.