Broken Antler Fen daddy said you gotta show the world the thunder.

His touch surprised her. She didn't flinch, though she looked up at him from beneath lashes heavy with tears and sniffled at his words. Meerkat hoped he was right and that Atlas would simply reappear as suddenly as he'd vanished. But as she considered that possibility, trying to believe in it, she also wondered what would happen then.

Her face crumpled as she thought, Everything is ruined. And she'd played a big part in it, however unwittingly. Should Atlas come back, Meerkat was pretty sure she'd made a mess of their relationship with seven little words. They'd been heartfelt at the time, yet so disastrous in the context. She could see that now, with painful clarity.

"I need to keep looking," she murmured, more to herself than to him, which made Meerkat suddenly realize she'd done very poorly as an ambassador in this scenario. Such things didn't really matter much right now, though she did muster the wherewithal to ask, voice still thick, "How are things here? And what's your name? I'm Meerkat."