Permafrost Hollows she names conquerors, and the servile regimes they birthed

Skipping Curri with permission.

Distrust filled her gaze again. And you're back to do what? she asked, eyeing him suspiciously while attempting to place more of herself between the stranger and Curri. She didn't care if the question was nosy. Taki hoped he hadn't come here to try and reclaim the glacier, because over her dead body would that happen. Literally--she would have to be dead before she gave up their new home. She had busted her ass finding the glacier, and her family had gone through many hardships following her here; she wouldn't give up the land without a fight. Why else would someone return to an old territory, though? She supposed he could just be feeling nostalgic. Whatever the reason, she'd like to know before they continued whatever conversation they were going to have so she would know whether or not she needed to make it clear they weren't going anywhere.