Moonsong Glacier say don’t go

The panther suppressed a smile when she talked about what she'd done when she was younger — Ariadne seemed very young to him, still. But he was charmed by her spirit, and impressed that she had a history beneath her already at such an age.

Dutch was pleased to be investigated, and now much closer, he lowered himself again to place himself below her. His tail whisked over the ground behind him while he ghosted his nose over one pale foreleg. Her people seemed few, albeit not as few as he and Valiant, the only other wolfscent on Dutch's pelt. He thought he could smell some of the other villages as well, but perhaps he only imagined them as she told him of the surrounding area. He burned to visit these places as well, but not as much as he burned to seek the mountain peak.

"My parents and my grandparents stalked this land before I was born on the Spine. I travel with my hunting partner, Valiant. He hails from the Land of Long Nights. His village is called Round Valley, and they are also my kin. But they are many moon and many mountains away from the Spine. It is good that you have so many so close. Perhaps it makes the hard times more easily borne."

His tone was matter of fact, but there was sympathy in his lamplike eyes.

"How many are in your village?" he asked her. "Are they only blood to you? Or might a stranger make his bed in your palace, too?"