Sunset Valley don't sweat the technique

Much of the time, Katmai felt quite distant from his family. He'd been lost for so long, and so young! Even so, he could remember the Before times, and folding himself into his brother's arms evoked a very similar feeling.

Until — Ah, there it was.

"I'm going to the cuesta. The one where grandmother was born."

He drew back to measure Kitimat's expression, a pang of guilt searing through him at the tears in the other boy's eyes.

"Blackbear's somewhere around here, too," he added, speaking of their youngest uncle, from said grandmother's latest litter. Katmai was not actually sure he was still nearby, but he hoped this might add some credibility to his mission. He was being supervised! Supposedly.

Even if it was by a young man not much older than they were.

"And then maybe the island," he threw in, despite having had no solid plans before now to find the place. "Where great-grandmother was born. Wouldn't you like to see that?"

See anything? the boy wondered, but did not say aloud.