Dragoncrest Cliffs salt singing

"i'll be back, maman. it was hard to be away at all," chani murmured, leaning into her mother's touch.
for a long while, they only held one another, lulled by the sound of the sea, and then she too reached to brush her paw against chacal's belly.
for some inexplicable reason her eyes shone with happy tears, and chani let out her breath with a wavering sound. surely val would want the pack to go on; secretly she wondered if there too was a corner of space he might hold, as sobo did.
chani held onto it all.
and she held even closer the idea that she might join her mother and auntie this year, a thought which frightened her beyond measure.