Ocean's Breath Plateau komatiq ∇

She still walked with a slight limp, but her ankle was healing, and she thought it would be back to normal in just a few more days. When her mother came for her that morning, she'd been stretching the joint and testing its limits, careful not to overextend it while still lengthening the tendons within. The single word, along with the fawnskin pelt, were enough to silence Sialuk for once. She did not ask where they were going, but she did follow without protest. She assumed it was for some kind of lesson or another.

As they departed Moonspear, Sialuk noted a crow cawing at them. For whatever reason, this seemed important to her. Perhaps it was due to the witch's quest to speak to animals. Sialuk wondered what the crow had been trying to say to her. She furrowed her brow and followed her mother down the slope, away from her home for the first time. Unlike some of the others her age, she had not parted ways with her home since she had been born, preferring to stay close to home, close to anaa and taataa.

The raindrop remained silent when her mother called for an audience, her ears pointing forward as the reddish-brown adult came into view along with—Wait a minute, Sialuk knew who that was. It was the boy she had met with Altair. She gave her mother a curious look. Was she in trouble for talking to him? Was that what this was all about?