Nova Peak Mind,

Asra was greener than green. Right off the boat.
He supposed this was the most common story. She was merely a traveler, a young woman dispersing from her home of wherever land. Taikon was the odd one out. While he had never actually told anyone what had happened to him, he assumed that other people just left when the time came. He had done so as an exile.
I see, he answered. Taikon sat down, relaxing. The air was chilly on the mountain. He could smell moisture on the wind — a foretelling of snow. And after the next few seasons? He probed on purpose, wondering why she had only planned that far in advance. He was reminded a bit of Celnes, who had joined Whitebark with her siblings and then abruptly left after they had had their fill of the caches. He wondered where the elk-like woman was these days.