Cedar Sweep we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there

Auburn blinked in surprise at the suddenness with which the boy said goodbye. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again when she saw him orient himself, then begin to carefully, slowly pick his way across the forest floor, as if he were blind. She blinked several times, watching him as he moved past her one cautious step at a time. Her head turned at a snail's pace to watch him go. Once again, she opened her mouth, this time to ask him what was wrong with him.

But something stopped her. She wasn't sure what--maybe a sense that, just as she had not liked to be picked on by her bigger siblings, she was sure Skipjack wouldn't like having his... whatever was wrong with him... pointed out, as if it weren't obvious to him already. She rose from the ground and instead asked, Where are you going? Can I come? Some tiny, niggling instinct, one that had been nearly squashed by her first year of life and all its hardships, made her wonder if he should even be out here. Where were Meerkat and Njord? Did they know he'd come here?