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

A step was taken towards him, making his body go rigid—but as she continued to speak, he slowly started to relax. Whilst he was there for the sake of travel alone, she was there for a reason; her children were missing and she wished to find them, and he wondered if that may have been the reason for her former bluntness. “I haven’t seen any children,” he told her, despite not being asked. Where or who they may be, he didn’t know and doubted he could be of any help.

Thankfully for him, the topic shifted, and it was his turn to be surprised. “You know it?” he asked, instantly curious. “It’s my family’s language. I’m from the north—more north than here, I mean.” Although he wasn’t from the true north like the uppik, he was still from a place further than where he currently resided. “Are you from the north, too?” To meet another of his people was an exciting thing, and he was eager to find out more.