“I’m glad you feel that way,” I say. “People spend a lot more time with other people in my world than they do here.”
We both turn towards the wall and resume our walk down the path.
“What are you doing with the morrow off?” Tela asks.
Larn decided we could finally reduce the number of Travelers needed for excursions outside the Delta. In all the months that have passed since Aven’s birth, we’ve only seen two Murkovin. They were both far in the distance and didn’t pay attention to us. As a reward for our hard work over the time since the attack on the road that killed Beck, half of the Travelers have the next morrow off, including Tela and me. The other half will take the following morrow off.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I say. “Sash and I have spent a lot of time with Aven lately. I don’t think Sash can take the morrow off, so I’ll probably just sleep and paint. How about you?”
“I was thinking of going to the Barrens,” she answers. “You know how it is.”
“Yeah, I know. I haven’t had a chance to let loose since Aven was born. Maybe that’s what I’ll do.”
“I have an idea,” she says excitedly. “On the morrow, you and I could go to the flats in the southwest Barrens that I told you about. We can race across the flats to get our count.”
“Our count?” I ask.
“We count in our heads while we travel between two large rocks. They’re exactly two thousand miles apart. The count is kind of like how you explained what seconds are in your world.”
“That sounds like fun,” I say, “as long as you don’t try to annoy me by snapping your fingers and counting out loud.”
She scrunches her nose at the reference to something she did when I explained time in my world to her. “You don’t think it would be . . . awesome if I did.”
We both chuckle at her sarcastic imitation of my slang. As was the case with Sash, once a sense of humor developed in her, Tela’s has continued to blossom.
“Will we have time to make it there and back in one morrow?” I ask.
“As fast as you and I are traveling, we’ll be back by sleep time. Maybe we’ll break Larn’s record in the flats.”
“What was his count?” I ask.
“I’ll tell you after we get ours.”
“Let’s do it,” I say.
After we return to the Delta, I find Sash sitting on top of a hill that overlooks the outside playground at Home. In the meadow at the bottom of the slope, the older children are playing on a giant jungle-gym. Aven is sitting in a swing with safety straps used for infants and toddlers. With her hands clamped to the steel ropes that suspend the swing, Aven glides through the air each time Kyra gently pushes her from behind.
“Hi beautiful,” I say to Sash, sitting on the grass beside her.
“How was your morrow?” she asks.
“It was great,” I reply. “How was yours?”
“It was nice. The trees are all well, so I came here a little early.”
“Your trees are always healthy,” I say. “I may be a little late getting back to our habitat on the morrow. Can you pick up Aven?”
“Of course. Why do you think you’ll be late?”
“Larn gave a few of us the morrow off. Tela and I want to go to the flats to get a count on our speed. Do you know what that is?”
“I do,” she answers. “Larn owns the record, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you surpass it as fast as you’ve been traveling.”
“Have you ever done it?” I ask.
“I did it once on the way to the Infinite Expanse.”
“What was your count?”
She looks at the children in the meadow. “I’d rather not say. It’s something that Travelers do. I’m a Hunter, so I shouldn’t even be able to travel.”
I know there’s no pushing the issue, her humility always intact, so I don’t even try. “Do you mind if that’s what I do? We’ve had a lot of time with Aven lately and I want to get out of the Delta for a while.”
“Not at all,” she replies, returning her attention to me. “I know what Travelers like to do on a morrow off. I’m very excited for you to get a count.”
“Thank you,” I say. “Something strange happened on the Mount.”
“What was it?”
“Well . . . I think Wren has a thing for Tela.”
She tilts her head to the side. “A thing?”
“Like what I have for you,” I say, resting a hand on her leg. “Like how it was when you and I went to the Tall Hill for the first time.”
“You call that a ‘thing’?” she asks rhetorically. “Why do you think Wren feels that way about Tela?”
“Just the way he looks at her. It’s the same way I look at you.”
“That’s odd,” she says. “No one here would ever look at another person that way, except maybe the Murkovin. And you and me.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But I think I’m kind of rubbing off on people. Like, their senses of awareness pick up things from my world through me.”
She nudges me with her elbow. “Does that mean you have a thing for Tela and Wren is getting it from you?”
“I’m serious,” I say. “I’ve seen it in others. Cavu blushed once when you complimented him. Tela makes jokes now and even laughs sometimes.”
“Maybe they’re just mimicking your behavior,” she reasons.
I shake my head. “That’s what I thought at first, but it’s more than that. I see it mostly in people close to our age, but I saw it in Tork once as well. He got really angry about the tunnel under the river and slammed his spear against a wall. It’s like he
