Fox's Glade and who shall wear the starry crown?

Maybe at one time, she would have held resentment against Kove for not returning. When they'd both been younger, perhaps. But he had aged greatly since she last had seen him. The journey here had been hard enough on the young trio; she could only imagine the effects it would have on the elder. 

Instead, Maegi smiled at the children's brief hellos and shook her head. Please don't be sorry, she insisted softly. We're here together now. That's a blessing. The most unexpected of blessings, really. 

Her nostrils flared as she explored the scents that layered his pelt, most if not all of them unfamiliar. Do you live around here now? Maegi asked. What made you decide to stay on this side of the mountains?

She wondered if he'd tried to go home, his old home, to the far north. Maybe that was too far for him to travel. Maegi couldn't imagine the place he had described was anywhere close to here; constant ice and snow seemed foreign, alien, another world.