Sun Mote Copse vacation's all I ever wanted

Meerkat remained quiet as she and Njord departed, leaving behind not just the distraction of Sialuk’s heat but also their two young daughters. She just hoped Towhee would keep their minds—especially Seal’s—off their parents’ absence. Losing their older brother and childhood friend to Moontide had been rough on the girls and Meerkat didn’t want them thinking, even for an instant, that she and their da would ever abandon them.

From Silverlight Terrace, they climbed Ghost Lion Crag, crossing the small valley and skirting around the rockiest bit of terrain before coming to the river emptying from Alpine Lake. Everything was fairly familiar to Meerkat, even after all this time, and soon her worries about leaving the girls took a backseat to her nostalgia. Excitement grew in her breast as they came upon the northeastern corner of the copse.

Did you know, Meerkat said to her husband, I haven’t been back here since the summer after I was born? I left to join Moonspear when I was just five or six months old. I visited every now and again after that but mom moved the pack to the caldera that fall. And I just never found my way back, she finished, eyes poring over this far corner of her birthplace, until now.