Jade Fern Grove We mean it, but I promise we're not mean.

<3

Shivali. Her mind scrambled over every white sister she'd been acquainted with. Was she the mother? Siarut hadn't specified, or maybe that too had been lost in translation. But Shivali, hers was a name Nanook had heard before.

She gave a simple nod, not at all surprised that the snow maiden had chosen to follow her brother out, yet curious to know what had made her wait. An unspoken tension stretched the length of Takiyok's words that Nanook couldn't decipher, but the sister said no more on the matter and simply fell quiet again.

The Apaata twitched her ear and eased a touch lower in the waters, shifting her watch outward at the turn of Takiyok's gaze. A steady stream of inner thoughts filtered through her - questions she might ask, statements she could make, but none seemed fitting nor suitable, so she let them simmer as she eased into the presence of her company, letting some take root and discarding others as she found enjoyment in the peace of their surroundings and in the quiet rest.

"I don't know much about you, or your family," she finally admitted, and the water rippled with the pendulating stir of her tail. "But I would like to know. I would like to learn, that I might find something of a family in yours." And even if Takiyok refused her that, Nanook would stay with the Northerners and earn their respect, one way or another.