---
Mia wrote. She didn't need a desk; her knees and the neat square of light from a lamp made one. Luna napped like a cat who refuses to admit she has fallen asleep and, therefore, can wake twice as fast as other people. Thea made lists and then burned them, which is how Thea tells herself to trust her head more than her paper.
Silvershadow went out and did the thing he does when the mountain needs to know who is walking toward it from too far for eyes. He came back with dust on the pattern of his fur that said, without words, a mile of them, and then a mile, and then a mile. Shadeclaw stood a spell in the mouth and let the chill find his plates so he'd get the morning's first shock for free.
Kai climbed again to Miryam's cradle and sat. He had never been good at sitting. He learned again. The cocoon's pulse found his; his breath found the mountain's; his mind made small, neat white-stone piles of problems and did not try to jump them in the dark.
