Ocean's Breath Plateau tagadal

It took him a moment to notice the other wolf with her, and just a moment longer to place her. The red flash of her tail alerted him a moment before her scent enveloped him, and then fresh tears flooded his vision in mixed joy, sadness, and relief.

Valiant murmured a quiet apology to her for the trouble, and for the spectacle he'd undoubtedly made of himself. The cramps were an unfortunate side effect of malnutrition, and he worried he'd always have a bit of a limp from now on — but he was by no means a cripple, and he meant to show this by only leaning a very little on the young woman. Accepting her help because she had offered it, but not placing any undue physical burden upon her.

"We got here a few days ago," he replied, though he knew this was no explanation. "Me'n Dutch, and your cousin Katmai."

He was breathless, both from the run and from the hard lump that emotion had made out of his lungs. He blinked the tears out of his eyes so that he could look at her, his baby, and see what all she'd become in his absence.

"There was an accident," he told her, unsure how to talk to her at her current age. She'd been so little, so young the last time he'd seen her. "While we were out lookin' for your cousins. I got hurt. But I've been trying to get back for months. I never stopped trying."

He looked between Nantahala and Nasamiituuq, questions of his own flooding his eyes. Only the most pressing escaped him: "Your momma?" he asked, desperate for news. "Your brothers'n'sisters? Nobody could tell me nothin'. I was just on my way. As soon as I had paws to put underneath me, I — "

He shook his head, frustrated by the impulse to make excuses for himself. There was nothing that could excuse his absence from her life.