Kintla Flatlands sang myself to sleep last night

There was a part of him that didn't really believe it until she spoke. He tried to answer her and choked on the words: "I've missed, you, too."

She came close to nudge him, but Valiant stepped into the gesture and hooked his chin over her scruff. It hid the twist of his features as he wrestled down the urge to bawl. She smelled like their mother, and it was not until that moment that he realized how deep in his memories that scent had been locked.

"I looked for you," he breathed, not yet ready to speak but forcing the words out anyway. He needed her to know, right now, lest she go a moment longer thinking herself possible to forget. "I been lookin' for years, now — where were you?"

He didn't ask to accuse her. Valiant, in all his years of doubt and dour moods, had never wondered if Minnow might be hiding from him. He just wanted to know what had filled her years in the meantime — he had wondered, after all, for the majority of his life.