After all, we’re in no hurry to get back, are we? Everyone’s an adult. The South Cave can manage itself for a few weeks.
The sled jerks ahead, making me yelp as Aehako picks up the pace. Sure enough, a thicker snowfall is starting to pour from the skies, but Aehako has apparently decided to sprint the rest of the way instead of pausing at another hunter cave. I cling to the packs as we zoom over the snow, and the distant cave comes closer and closer to view. The sight of the large, triangular opening of the main cave fills me with a curious sense of…not exactly homesickness, but a wistful sort of pleasure.
This was my first home here on Not-Hoth. It’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
“Ho,” someone cries, and a fur-covered figure jogs toward our sled.
“Ho!” Aehako pants, not stopping even as the other hunter pulls up alongside us. “We are heading in before the weather hits.”
“I see that! And you brought your pretty mate!” The hunter lowers his hood and it is Zolaya, who grins at me. “My mate will be glad to see the both of you. I suppose I can put off checking my traps for a day or so.”
“Go check them,” Aehako tells him with a friendly shout. “We will be staying for several days yet. Feed your mate’s growing belly!”
Zolaya claps a big hand on Aehako’s shoulder and then nods at me. “Perhaps I shall!” He jogs off again, passing us by, and then we are almost at the cave.
“Ho!” cries another voice. “Visitors!”
My eyes brim with happy tears as more people crowd at the entrance of the cave, and I see humans mixed with friendly blue faces. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed everyone until just now, and I’m filled with a wild, impatient sort of joy as we approach.
I can’t wait to hug all my friends again.
Aehako finally stops his endless jog and pulls the sled directly in front of the cave entrance. His shoulders heaving, panting, he moves to my side and helps me climb out of the massive pile of supplies. Immediately, I’m met with happy squeals. Marlene—ever exuberant—flings her arms around me and Ariana bursts into tears and hugs me, too. I see Georgie, standing next to her mate, and Nora, and it’s all too much. I get weepy, too, and then Georgie and I collapse on top of each other and sob, much to Vektal and Aehako’s chagrin.
“Pregnancy tears,” I explain to my mate as I wipe my cheeks. “I’m happy. I really am.”
My mate looks uncertain, but he’s quickly distracted away as his mother and father arrive. Sevvah and Oshen are enveloped in bear hugs, and then his brother Rokan is there, a faint smile on his face. Sessah—a much tinier, younger version of my mate—is there too, and he beams up at his grown brother, so small and adorable that I realize that our child might look just like him.
And I start crying again. Before Aehako can ask, I blubber, “I swear I’m happy!”
Sevvah just clucks at me, tugging me into her arms. She’s so regal, his mother, with her looping gray braid and the only hint of her age the lines around her eyes. “Of course you are happy, dear heart. You are carrying a kit. If he has not seen you weep at least once a day over nothing at all, then he should count himself very lucky.” She smooths her fingers over my face and then beams down at me. “Come, I will make you something to eat.”
“Now I’m hungry,” Georgie mutters at my side.
“Then I will feed you, too,” Sevvah says easily. “Come sit by the fire while my Aehako greets his friends.”
* * *
Sevvah fusses over me for a while as Aehako meets with Vektal, and then is pulled away for one thing after another. I get it, though. He’s leading the South Cave and everyone’s going to want to know what’s going on there. He’s going to be busy all day, even though he casts several worried looks toward his mother’s cave as if he wants to come and hover all over me.
“His father was like that the first time I carried,” Sevvah says with a rueful smile. “He was at my side so much that I wanted to shove his head into the snow if he did not give me space to breathe.”
I smile at her. “When does it wear off? When does he relax?”
“He does not.” Sevvah chuckles at her own joke. “If he is anything like his father, he will be the most attentive of fathers—sometimes annoyingly so.”
That’s all right with me.
Georgie shows up at Sevvah’s cave entrance just then, and peeks inside. “Knock knock.”
“Come in,” Sevvah tells her. “I was just about to prepare this evening’s meal.”