Lost Creek Hollow only suffering can teach

indra could not hold the cool burn of merrick's gaze for long -- for she recognized in the depths of his sunburnt brown eyes the very same hurt she had seen once in laurel's eyes, when their mother had left them. oh, it stung -- she drew a shaky breath, trying to compile the thousand reasons why she had to go .. but what good would it do for the hurt, except possibly make the wound worse?

"i have to," her voice was pained, but she sought the expressive gaze of her son once more. "we have to find them." bending down so that she was level with her proud son, indra sighed and hoped that buried somewhere under that layer of hurt, there was love for his family that had fallen apart. "i promise, i will be back. but i need you to take care of nunataq - take care of each other."