Kildeer Rest only the beginning

She called out to him. He smiled in his usual way, his tail wagging a few times before he settled beside her, sitting off to one side and not too close, respectfully.

I am! It is a fine time to travel. We are fortunate. Any later and their exit from the village would've been plagued with snowfall, he thought. It could have been very dangerous.

He was aware of her sour expression and a certain weight upon her shoulders which had not been there within the village, and that led him to promptly ask: You do not seem so light today, Sialuk. Is something... the matter? Kigipigak was not the type to engage in heart-to-hearts, making this new - and awkward - territory.