Sawtooth Spire all ashore

It was good to hear that Alya had some more recent news from Valette than he did. Nikai didn't worry too much; Valette had always been there, for as long as he remembered, so he didn't really doubt that she was right at home waiting for him now. He just wondered if Stark was still beside her, and if there were baby siblings; it was mostly the circumstances surrounding the steady rock of Valette that tended to change. "Yeah, she's probably fine," he said with a soft smile.

Alya's question caught Nikai unaware, and he blinked and looked a little caught for a second or two. "Oh -- uh, I'm alright." He was really feeling the pain in his muscles since everything needed to compensate for the missing leg, especially on the mountains. But while Nikai was generally an honest sort of wolf, he didn't want Alya to think he was weak. He wanted them to be equal partners. "I'll be fine. It'll be nice to take a few days to rest once we get there, though. Just do nothing instead of travel around all the time." He'd been travelling for so long, it was nice to even be here with just Alya, feeling like he didn't need to watch his own back too much. Nikai had had no idea what to expect when he'd returned to the wilds, but so far reality certainly didn't disappoint.