Moonsong Glacier moons

Would he stay?

There was a celebration waiting for him, at home. He would be a man upon his return, ready to take a wife of his own. His father would touch him on either shoulder and then above his eyes and he would receive a new name — one that was not a matching set with his siblings.

But he looked back at Callyope and he knew that he would not mind her calling him White Elk for the rest of his life.

"I will stay," he told her. "I must finish my work as herald — but I will finish it near to this place. Near to you."

She had promised him nothing. He made this vow for the precedent already set: that he might seek her, and that she might let him. When he thought about it, it made his breath catch, and he trembled to think of the strange power she held over him. He thought about it now and felt a pleasurable shiver race down his spine.