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For Elisabet

Although it nearly tore him apart, Alder finally had to return to Northfall.

But when he did leave the Vale, he was positively glowing.

After what seemed like an eternity of dancing around feelings and assumptions and expectations for the better part of two years, at last, Alder had cracked - he'd said the words, felt the weight of his heart lodged up in his throat as they spilled out - and against all odds, Sølvi reciprocated.

More than that! He blushed to think of their passionate night together spent in each other's embrace.

Solvi. He and Solvi. Someone out there loved him! Not just that, but she, the greatest of all women on earth, loved him, and the feeling had him on cloud nine.

He had to tell Liss! Last they'd spoken she said she would keep an eye out for the missing sylph, and now he could formally call off the search. There was also the matter of that strange fellow who'd been looking for her - he regretted not finding her sooner, but maybe it was nothing after all. He decided to take a (moderate) detour and head up toward Camhanaich before making the lonesome journey home.

Alder couldn't wipe the smile off his face. It was almost painful.

He stood at the border of Druid's Rise and tried to steady his still-hammering heart, struggling to come to terms with his disbelief that this all wasn't a dream from which he might one day wake.

It was real. It was real.

He tipped his head back and called for Liss, barely able to contain his excitement.

Alder's call pricked Liss's ears. She pulled her head out of a half-dugout rabbit warren, covered in soil. Quick to answer in kind, her howl echoed off the moorlands and she pitched into an ecstatic run. Alder! You came back! Spring was bringing all kinds of friends to her doorstep! Maybe it would eventually bring family, too. Maybe they had passed the test, and now only good things would happen!

Bounding like a fawn fresh proud of its legs, the sight of Alder's hollyred pelt was easy to trace between the green. She skidded into a playbow, and then, because restraint was not in her of late, leapt to embrace him and lick at his muzzle, You look great! You look happy! Where have you traveled? I went North, I meant to visit you! But then the earth broke up and those — those tunnels opened, that took everyone everywhere. And when I came out again I was back on the moor! Did it send you here, too? Tell me about your adventures! I've had so many!