Wapun Meadow And miles to go before I sleep

Her words did not provide the comfort that Echelon was hoping for. She found herself in silent worry — though worry was hardly a word in her vocabulary — that perhaps once they had helped him in the way he had helped them, he would turn them loose. Of course, she would not have been surprised if that wasn't the plan all along. Even if he had a mate and cubs there, he also had Tartok. And above all, Echelon felt that Tartok should have came first. She did not understand the mystery of the heart, nor experience some of the feelings that it was supposed to give. Those things had been squashed out of her early on, though whether it was by her father or the others of Tartok was unknown.

A sigh left her, though not in part to what she was told. It was merely a passive response, followed by her attempt to burrow herself closer to the ground. She supposed that as long as her aokkatti was content, then she would have to try to be too. "I hope we move on his glacier soon then," she said, once more slipping back towards a child-like mirth. "I want to explore it." It was perhaps then that she let on that she had her own like of that landscape. It attracted her well, held her attention far longer than it should. And furthermore, she hoped that they would stay there, that Njal and his mate, and their cubs along with Tonravik and herself, would make Tartok bloom and spread across the wilderness.