Redsand Canyon a monster in my head, a ghost inside my chest

"Kallik?"

Thoughts of Arlette fell from his mind as he found himself covering the distance that remained between himself and his cousin.

"Where have you been?" he returned - not upset, but with a laugh of disbelief. Kallik, his cousin. Alive? Merrit had always known it... yet he had given up searching, just as he had given up on Stark. "I thought you had left the Wilds! After you left in the summer, I could not find you. But - " here a smile caught over his face, small, but genuine, "here you are."

His gaze shifted to the woman who came alongside his cousin, and Merrit perceived something in the air between them. Something he knew the name for - yet he was unable to fathom that little Kallik was even old enough for that.