Wild Berry Meadow Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful

"They are," Valiant agreed; his earliest memories had been in the shadow of that mountain range. He wondered what the willows looked like today. But before he could become too weighted by this rumination, Raindrop explained just what she'd found so funny.

"Ha," the isbjørn huffed out what was only nominally a laugh, but there was, perhaps, a telltale curve to his mouth. He gave another mighty shake and managed to dislodge a few more of them, which fluttered down around them like autumn leaves. He blew one toward her face as it passed his own. "I was on a hunt," he explained. It was a thin excuse, and there was a particularly stubborn feather stuck in the thick undercoat on his shoulder that did not at all add to his air of credibility.

He turned his head to point back toward the coast.

"I've been staying with a pack in that direction. They call themselves Moonsong," he replied.