Moonspear know that the shine inside will always keep you strong

He did not take it poorly when her reaction underwhelmed. Treepie had a lot on her mind, but either way, Katmai thought her words must be sincere. After all, she had grown up in a bustling village herself, hadn't she? With at least one litter other than her own.

Her attachment to this place was deeply understandable. Katmai had contemplated attempting to claim the plateau where he'd grown up — but he worried it would hurt him too much to walk the same paths he used to walk, only without all the wolves with him that made the memories of the place so beloved. He wished he could convince Treepie to come away from this place, too — at least for a short time. Perhaps Kinusi would be able to help.

"We're still looking around," he said, turning his head to look not at the mountain, but at the peaceful valley down below. The opposite mountain range drew his gaze. "I had thought of a place. My grandmother was a girl there — it's called Blacktail Deer Plateau. But I've never been. She said that it overlooked some hot springs, and that you could see the spine from the cliffside. And Kinusi liked the idea of cliffs, I think."

So that they could look down on and playfully taunt wolves down below — but he did not share this childish fantasy with Treepie.

"I will know the place when I find it," he assured her, his tail wagging. "Or she will. Maybe. I hope."