The whole clan had gathered to see them off. It was mid-morning, and many eyes were bleary. They’d had a feast the night before, with music, dancing, and plenty of dangerously fermented berry wine. She knew people were sorry to see Hudson and Cole leaving, but it was with the understanding but it would be much less permanent than before.

Tali had already said her goodbyes to Briar and a few of the others she’d become close with over the past five days. She knew the healers were probably not sorry to see the end of her on the whole, but she thought maybe she’d managed to earn a small amount of affection from Vikna by the end.

She’d seen Cole off to the side with his aunt, sharing a quiet goodbye. She knew he had promised her he’d come back more often now that he was no longer exiled. He had even been trying to convince her to come down to Newcomb for a bit, with Tali’s help. They’d come close to getting a committed yes, but weren’t quite there yet.

Now all three of them were ready to go. Together.

It felt kind of surreal to be heading back to town after these five days in the mountains. Time seemed to move so strangely up here, among the bears, like they’d been here for a hundred years and no time at all. She felt a little sad to be leaving, but Briar, in her weird cryptic way, had heavily implied that she’d be back, and Tali was inclined to believe anything that came out of her mouth at this point.

Still. She was ready to go home. To a soft mattress and blankets that didn’t smell musty. To central heating. To Ella. She was surprised by how much she missed her, though she supposed she shouldn’t be. That kid was a part of her soul now, and no amount of eye-rolling or teenage tantrums would ever change that.

Sheena walked them over to where their two snowmobiles were waiting. The one she and Hudson had ridden up here on, and another, an old, rusted thing they’d had for years that Cole had spent the last couple of days tinkering with until it seemed good enough to most likely make it down the mountain without falling completely apart.

Tali and Cole took each other by the hands and headed away a bit toward their snowmobile and started packing up, trying to give Hudson and Sheena some space. Not that Tali wasn’t one hundred percent straining to hear every word they said.

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” she heard Shenna say softly. “Or that I didn’t wish you’d chosen differently. But I get it.”

“I’m sorry, Sheena,” Hudson said. “I’d like to be here for you. And I will. To whatever degree I can.” Tali glanced over, not subtly, and saw him reach into his pocket. He pulled out his phone. “Take this,” he said, handing it to her. “Keep it turned off, unless you need it. If you do, call Tali. Her number’s in there. Your kid already knows how to use it. Right Aron?”

Aron, who’d been hovering on the periphery of their conversation with even less subtlety than Tali, trudged forward looking sulky. “Yeah,” he said glumly, looking at his feet. “Are you really going? I thought you were gonna teach me how to spar better.”

“Yeah. That’s what I said,” Hudson said. “And I will. But I’m still beat up pretty bad, kid. I’ll come back in a few weeks, when I can give you a worthy fight, okay? I promise. You’ll show your ma how to use that thing if she needs it, right? It’s for emergencies, not Candy Crush. I’ll bring you up some battery chargers next time and you can play with it then.”

“Okay,” Aron nodded, looking somewhat mollified, though still a little disappointed.

“You better work hard at getting strong while I’m gone. Climb some trees. Scrap with the other kids. I won’t go easy on you,” Hudson said.

“I will,” he said, more determined now.

“Good,” Hudson said, ruffling his hair. “Run along now. Never too soon to get started.”

Aron listened and bounded off. A couple of other boys went tearing off after him into the woods.

“Thank you for that.” Sheena smiled.

“He’s a good kid. He’ll make a good leader someday. I’ll do what I can to help him along, but it seems to me you’re doing a pretty good job of it already.”

“Thank you,” she said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. They looked at each other for a long moment, and Tali saw that there was affection and forgiveness between them. At the same time, they seemed to agree to come forward in a hug, where they rested, cheek to cheek for a long moment.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said.

“I know,” she murmured. Then, seeming to shake it off, she stood tall again, coming over to her and Cole in a couple of long strides.

“Thank you, cub,” she said to Cole. “For being both brave and stupid.”

Cole smirked. “Thank you. For your barbed compliment.”

“She’s not wrong,” Tali muttered, and Sheena leaned forward to hug Cole, pressing a kiss to his cheek, before pulling away and turning to Tali.

“You’re very tiny,” she said.

“Um,” Tali said, not sure how to respond. But apparently that wasn’t the end of it.

“But you don’t act like it. I don’t suppose I need to tell you to look out for them. I know you will,” she said.

Tali shrugged. “I know I’ll try. Not sure they’ll make it easy.”

Sheena smiled. “I think you’re up to the challenge.” She turned again to address all of them. “You’d better get doing. You’ll want to be back in your village by dark, I expect. Goodbye. Thank you.”

She turned around, walking back toward the village where everyone was still gathered waiting to see them off.

She turned to look at Hudson, who’d opted to ride the busted-up snowmobile on his own while she rode the good one with Cole, which seemed to be the optimal weight distribution (although he had gone on a bit about how ironic it would be if he survived the whole thing with Ronin only to meet a fiery death on the back of a forty-year-old snowmobile).

“You ready?” she asked, climbing up behind Cole.

He nodded, snowflakes on his thick lashes. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

And so they did, the three of them.

Together.