Blackfeather Woods so you run and you run to catch up with the sun

That she knew of Bearclaw Valley came as a surprise, which was reflected through the way his ears perked up and he visibly brightened, curious. Had Alexander taken the valley? Nanook? Sesi? No, not a single one of those names followed after, only an Indra; though this did not necessarily mean that one, or more, of his children had not claimed the valley for themselves, he did not push for names for fear of what reality would be. He merely nodded and said, “I did. My wife at the time, Scarlett, and I were actually the first to find our way into that valley, I believe. The entrance was hidden for so long.” Difficult to find and difficult to enter unwelcome—he had truly loved the valley, for those reasons and so many more. But that past love and his own worries were not enough, it seemed, to keep his curiosity entirely at bay.

“This Indra girl... did she take good care of you?” he asked, then motioned towards the mangled portion of her face. “Did she do all that she could for you, for that?” Had she tried to lessen the degree at which her past troubles were shown so openly across her face?

She had questions for him, too, which he couldn’t immediately answer. For what reasons did he stay—why did he not return to the north, to his people, where he would be most at peace? “Because of the need to fulfill past duties, I suppose,” he offered. “I promised to protect this land until my dying day and to watch over the Melonii children. I can’t bring myself to just abandon those promises—I was raised to stay true to my word, no matter the circumstances.” And, he knew, there was no guarantee that he’d even make it as far north as he would need to go.