Honeyed Pasture nowhere left for me to go

His ears twisted back at the idea of his son being hurt — but Dutch knew that this, too, was a inevitable and even necessary part of life. They could not protect their children from every hurt in the world.

He nodded in agreement, however, about coming to meet Kinusi. However she might treat Katmai, she was still a piece of a man he greatly admired.

"I will, and soon," he assured the other man.

As for their hardships — Dutch thought that these past two years were the worst he'd ever had to weather, even as they'd started at the best. It had broken him in ways he was still reckoning with, and he was still unsure about how to move on. But, it was what it was.

"My... My Marina, she is back on the coast still," he said to the man. "Nearing her heat. I must return to her. But I will come soon to say hello."

And goodbye, he imagined, though he did not yet know their plans.