Redhawk Caldera the manuscript

Maia allowed the couple time to settle in before she sought out Kivaluk. Ever since her daughter and son-in-law’s arrival, Maia had been mulling a decision, but this needed to be done sooner than later. The advent of summer would bring more changes without a doubt, and if Brecheliant was to weather them, it needed to be at its best. She had known for a while that this was not true now.

These were not things she had brought up to anyone. She refused to guilt her daughters into leadership, or lend expectations to their shoulders that they should not bear. She was simply exhausted, and Killdeer and Ceridwen’s departures only made it more clear how precarious things would be if nothing changed.

Maia had gone to the gathering of the hunts to learn, but all she had brought home with her was a certainty of all the ability she lacked. Each herd she found was unreadable; she did not understand what those she would have hunt needed to do, and the thought of subjecting them to the danger of those hooves and antlers under her inept guidance left her cold. She was no hunter. Not in the way her father had been.

Kivaluk. Can we speak a moment? Maia asked, finding him and hoping she was not interrupting. The request was apologetic, just in case, but this was important.