Wapun Meadow do we stand a chance to rise above it all

she didn't reprimand him, something that shocked him. marten was a good boy. if marten was your pet pooch, you would've just had to ask him nicely not to pee on the carpet and he would've listened. but the relationship between him and laurel was different, in that marten didn't place laurel so high on a pedestal -- but he did put indra way up there, and of all marten's misbehaving, the majority of it appeared to happen within the last few days. 

but so marten settled before her, nose twitching. 

"start at the beginning," he said quietly, feeling it was such a easy answer to her question. i mean, that's how you started stories... right? not that marten was trained in anything except toad watching -- oh, rupert, the toad must miss him so much -- but he was good at talking. he liked talking. and he hated when everyone was sad. everyone always seemed sad -- he just wanted to help. "i'll listen," he urged in gentle encouragement.