Lone Star Mountain today, you were far away

Though the creature could not, would not, answer, Seal still appreciated that it listened.

“Och, I should be stronger than this,” she admitted weakly. Seal thought of her mentors… Sialuk, Teya, and Bridget… of all the things she had learned and the stories she had been told. “Would would everyone think? Seeing me cry like a wee bairn.” She pushed the snow around with a paw. Ajei came to mind next… her kind face and fire-red fur. Then Raiyuk… the sealhunter boy. Had he recieved his scars? Had he grown tall? Then Frolic. Where had her best friend gone? Was she safe?

More faces from her childhood… Taggak, Chani, Massaraq, Arrluk, Alaric, Elentari…

The faces of her family… Mom, Da, Orca, Otter, Skipjack, Stingray, Towhee, Bushtit, Killdeer, Caracal, Phox, Ava, Ana, Dinah…

Seal squeezed her eyes shut, wanting so badly to rewind time, if only a little.

She watched the creature graze, her heart heavy.

“What are you, anyway,” she pondered. Then, a depricating laugh. “Could you be a mountain spirit?”