Anton nodded to Kala's question. "Yes, I have two little girls, Lea and Katerina. They're very young right now, but I hope to see them grow up into fine women." As Kala noted Ama's unusual size for her species, Anton shrugged slightly.
"Yes, Kala, but since I didn't know much about Kelvics in general, I just sort of figured that perhaps that was normal for certain species of Kelvic." He scratched his chin slightly. "I wouldn't know much about Talderan Kelvics. I mean I've never really ventured that far out, although it's possible we have distant cousins there, at least on my wife's side."
Nate, for his part, seemed disappointed that Ama was no longer in the mood for playing. She seemed really affected by the idea of her father finding out that she slipped out. Was her dad really that scary? "Hey come on, I'm sure your dad won't be too mad at you," he tried, smiling at Ama with an attempt to cheer her up. He really wasn't paying all that much attention to what the adults were talking about. Something about... Tada Kelvics?
It was some big word that Nate really didn't get, but apparently it had something to do with making them really big. Nate had never seen a wolf before so he just figured that Ama's size was normal for her age. Apparently it wasn't, and Kala seemed to imply that was unusual, but Nate really didn't see what the problem was. So what if Ama was bigger than the usual wolf? That just meant she was cooler!
But it seemed like Kala wanted them all to go home. Nate couldn't stop the disappointment from showing all over his face. They hadn't even done anything out here, except chase a rabbit that they didn't catch, and him almost getting eaten by a big cat. This was totally not the awesome story Nate was hoping for when he first went out here, but he supposed there was always next time.
He was even more disappointed when Ama ran off back to her mom. He kinda liked the girl, she was nice and friendly and adventurous like him. But he supposed that she'd been bad, coming out her by herself, and he'd been punished for doing the same thing by his father enough times to know that one was not supposed to do that. He sighed and looked up at his father, who actually stopped, and said to Nate, "OK, son, lead us home."
Nate froze. He thought his dad had been mostly joking about that. He was serious?! He glanced worriedly at Ama and Kala, but Anton's sharp barking voice brought his eyes back to his father. "Don't look at them. You're alone out here, Nathan. What do you do?"
Nate couldn't help it. He started to panic, the cold grip of the emotion rolling down his spine like water and he felt helpless and trapped, almost like when the cougar was about to eat him. He couldn't do this, why was his dad making him do this, it wasn't fair...
"Nathaniel!" Anton's voice cut through the fog in Nathan's mind like a knife. "Don't panic, son. Never panic." Anton laid a calming hand on Nate's shoulder, dropping down so he could look his son in the eyes. "Listen to me, son," he soothed. "Just take a deep breath." Nate did, and Anton nodded encouragingly.
"That's right, deep breaths. In and out, there you go. Easy now. Just calm down." Nate nodded as he took several more breaths, feeling the burning sensation of panic begin to die down. After a few ticks he'd calmed down enough that Anton felt he was ready to try again.
"OK, so what do we do, Nathan?" he prompted again. Nate's brow furrowed.
"Uhhhh," he said, his eyes sharp as he tried to concentrate, tried to remember what his father had taught him. "We... we look for, umm, we look for water?"
Anton's face was impassive, displaying no emotion to Nate's question, not giving Nate any indication whether his answer was right or wrong. "Because... because water goes downhill? And, umm, and it... leads to bigger water?"
Still no response from Anton. Nate looked very frustrated, but he decided to go with his plan. It was the best idea he had so far, and it was clear his father wasn't going to help him this time, expecting Nate to try to figure it out on his own. He briefly wondered what would happen if he couldn't find his way back. Surely his father wouldn't force Kala and Ama to stay out here too!
Straining to hear any sign of running water, Nate was tempted to dash forward to see if there wasn't any up ahead when he stopped himself. Dashing off like that was exactly what had gotten him into trouble before, and despite being young, he wasn't so stupid as to make the same mistake twice. But there didn't seem to be any running water for him to find, and after a few chimes of fruitless searching, he turned to his father again.
"Daaaad, it's not working!" he whined, but Anton just raised an eyebrow. The implication was clear. Figure it out. And the sun was setting at an awfully fast rate. Nate glanced over at Ama, to see if she was as worried as him. Was his dad being serious?!
