Sun Mote Copse vacation's all I ever wanted

His mention of willows evoked a memory, likely by design. Meerkat smiled, first remembering their frolicsome activities that day. But then she recollected more of the conversation they’d shared prior. Her face became drawn. She pushed away from the past like a boat launching from shore, refocusing on the present and all the possibilities on the future horizon.

Still she didn’t speak yet, studying her husband’s face for long moments. Njord had used the word “detached” to describe how he felt about Moonspear, particularly now that some of his loved ones—namely, their son—had gone to Moontide. She could reassure him that they would return someday and that he could foster his bond with Sialuk. But even the briefest remembrance of Sapphique—and how disenfranchised he’d felt for so long—changed her heart and mind in an instant.

Let’s do that tour, Meerkat said before stating simply, and if you like what you see and you think we’d be happier here and want to settle it, that’s just what we’ll do.

It wouldn’t be easy, uprooting once more. And it might mean she would be thrust into leadership again. But maybe it would be different, if it was theirs. Meerkat just hoped Sialuk would give them her blessing. They would certainly take the girls with them but she didn’t know if perhaps Fennec or Towhee et al might want to come too. Meerkat didn’t want to destabilize the village they’d helped to build.

But she tucked all these concerns into her back pocket for now, reaching to smooth her nose along Njord’s cheek before starting to walk deeper into the copse. For a while, they walked due south before she began to drift east, leading her husband toward the far side of the copse and the river running along the foot of the mountain there.

You mentioned water, she commented to Njord as the trees thinned near the riverbank.

Eyes twinkling a little, she looked over at him to see what he thought so far.