But I put it out of my mind Long enough to call it courage To live without a lifeline
She had spent the night pressed against her daughter sleeping soundly for the first time since she caught her faded scent at the border. She was too big now to wrap her limbs around and encompass her in a ball as she might have once done. Rising early that next morning, not refreshed but no longer gripped with the stress and panic she had been experiencing, she made her way out of the den. She let the cold air hit her face. Her daughter was still recovering from her exposures, and she had no doubt that she would sleep for a little while longer.
She would not go far, instead settling and watching as the sun started to peak over the horizon, embracing the peaceful feeling she rarely felt anymore. Everything was fine now… Kateri was safe. Nash was by her side… it all felt like it was falling into place… and that was precisely what scared her. Everything had fallen into place once before, and at the end of it all, she had lost her mother… she had failed to treat her mother. They all trusted her as their Shaman, but that was because she had never yet revealed to any of them that she had failed once before.
All she could do was try to mentally prepare for the oncoming storm.