Wheeling Gull Isle spichen

He had come here once to help deliver Mireille to Heda, but beyond that, Everett had stayed away. He had heard of a woman’s way with strangers and children, and isn’t that what he still was to them? A stranger, despite knowing himself welcome here.

So he had kept caches full and clean and had attended to the quiet shores while Caracal and Heda busied themselves with the children God had given them.

Today he neared them with a sturdy bone clenched in his teeth. It had washed ashore from some sea-bound leviathan and thought it had taken some effort to drag it up through the hills and fields… well, he hoped the children would like it, and the way it twisted in places and flattened in others. It could, perhaps, serve in games of make believe! Or perhaps be used to teach the art of etching. He wondered, idly and trying not to let his excitement mount, if any of them might be interested…

He stopped when he spotted Heda, and let the bone sag against the ground. Thought the kids might like a present, he offered with a cautious smile, a gift from the sea.