Stone Circle When the sun sets

This young girl Arlette, she seemed confident, yet gently so, and exuded an air that stilled Nanook with a welcome peace. The mercenary felt comfortable in her presence -- despite the uncanny resemblance she shared with her late mother -- and her face finally settled into a soft and genuine smile. The mercenary covered the final steps toward her niece.

"Yes, and yes," she said in short reply, and the hum of a laugh rolled from her throat. "Your mother must have told you this already, but you look exactly like her. Our mother," and she missed her greatly, but the pain, the guilt, the blame -- the Order of the North had taught her to forgive all of that. They had helped her see, that to think of Scarlett now, and the grief she had put them through in choosing to tear herself from Kove, no longer hurt so much.

"I am Nanook, and this," she swung her head to the man of ice, laying some feet behind her now, her own eyes warm with affection, "this is my mate, Siarut." She returned to observe Arlette -- her niece -- and already, she felt a strong instinct to protect this young one, to uphold her, and strengthen her. She already seemed so strong, and she queried, "You must be old enough to have taken a trade. Tell me, what interests you? Do you give as a hunter? A healer? Or, perhaps something else?"