Neverwinter Forest Places far away and we're not you and me, but

Children were far from the bounty hunter's mind. Even the impending breeding season did not put him in the mind of budding families; he'd participated these past two years only in the earliest stages of that process. He did not associate copulation with conception, even though he understood how the two events were tied. It had just never been any of his business, and he did not anticipate that changing.

Seastorm's behavior was mystifying to Catamaran, but this had been true from the start. He did not register the change as anything more than her slowly settling in.

Still. He had to stop and observe when he came upon the scene. She was in one of those moods where he was wary to approach her, and so he kept to the outskirts of the tiny hollow that made up their claim, waiting to see if she would simmer down. He'd not brought any gifts with which to appease her, which now seemed like a grave and foolish oversight.