At Stardust's retreat, Liss bothered to look down at her paws. They were pretty muddy. And she was covered in briars and twigs and bug-guts and sap. She'd tried to stay clean, really! Okay, not really. But sort of. A bit. Ish. Either way, when you were out on the road, it was hard to keep a clean coat! Especially one as thick as hers, blowing out for coming cold season!

But Stardust was talking now, so Liss didn't say any of that, even though she wanted to. And things were being said that made the girl flatten hear ears, lips sagging down into a distressed frown.

Had she put Kirain in danger? Liss hadn't meant to! Tears welled in her eyes, the powerful excitement of before souring into anxiety. I-I'm sorry, I—, she whimpered, I was really far away, first I met Aivar and these caribou hunters, and I tried to share with them but they were really mean and they chased me off and Aivar stayed with them and so I tried to find other packs to talk to and there were a few out there you know and— A brief, stilted inhale capped off an increasingly pitched tone; the whining continued, and I thought I might find my family up North but nobody was there that I knew besides Aivar and he hadn't seen them anyway so I came back to check on you guys and, and whatdoyoumeanshe'spregnant? No, no — she was pregnant. Had Liss missed the whole thing in her misadventure? Did she have her babies ok? Can I see her and tell her I'm sorry? The girl put on her biggest, wettest, saddest puppy eyes.