Deepwood Weald Like I could be your friend if you had anything to offer me tonight

@Dutch had gone — and abruptly Marina could see nothing past the absence of him. How long had it been since they'd truly spoken to one another? Since he'd touched her so softly that night, just once and never again?

His wife remained in Moontide; in a way Marina was grateful for it, that lingering reminder that even his return would not bring him back to her. Never her, seal hunter wife and mother that she was, bound inextricably to the life she'd chosen long before she'd known how her heart would catch helplessly in his orbit.

Now he was gone. What could she do but search?

A soft word to @Chakliux and @Rodyn preceded her departure; she would return before a week had passed, with or without Dutch. Mindful of her fragile health, she brought along a skin folded with herbs and a second with fish. Marina did not truly think she would find him — but she had to try. She had to.