Panther Park If I made it too hard for you, maybe you should've changed it

The male was taken aback, brows pinching together and gaze drifting past her. “The glacier is gone…?” He couldn’t believe it—were the storms inland just as bad as they were on the coast? She spoke of Rusalka, of having gone to the coast in search of him, only to be turned away. “What leader?” he asked, eyes focusing back on her. “Who didn’t let you?” He had a feeling he knew who it was—the only one that would have, to keep her children safe. But he didn’t want to believe it. It was easier to believe that Takiyok never sought him out, that she never tried to see him.

“Where’s everyone else? Why aren’t you with them?” More questions—each with an answer that he wondered to himself if he even wanted to know. “And what children? You didn’t have children before.” The only ones there were him, Tunerk, and Sos. “Do you know where Tunerk is? And Sos? If you’re here… they should be here, too, right?” Suspicion became desperation—he wanted his siblings back. He missed Tunerk so much and he couldn’t even remember when he last saw Sos. Would he recognise him, if he saw him?

She said she wanted him—and he felt his eyes began to sting. “No one there wanted me there,” he repeated, trying more so to convince himself than her. “Did my mom even look for me? Why didn’t you make them let you into Rusalka?” It was unrealistic to think that she could have but he needed a reason to be upset. He needed a reason to assure himself that he was right, that he left for the right reasons.