Otter Creek It always runs back but it's never quite the same

She didn't immediately register the woman's presence, too focused on her task to process the unfamiliar scent that filled her nostrils; it was just one more scent that didn't belong to any of her missing children. But the scent persisted and eventually pulled her from her hyper-focused state. Taki paused, lifting her head to look at the stranger. Normally she, too, would offer the other woman a shrewd gaze and a terse comment about her just standing there, but she didn't much feel like it. Within the borders of Diaspora, she had to wear the mask of a leader and push aside her grief and longing, but out here, she was just too exhausted to muster up anything other than mild irritation. She stared at the stranger for a few silent moments before finally speaking. Have you seen any lost children wandering around here? she decided to ask, hoping she could get something useful out of this encounter. They would be about seven months now. Two boys named Mesa and Ego or a girl named Monarch. She didn't expect to hear that she had seen them, but she had to ask just in case. She could leave no stone unturned.