“Siti, the new creature won’t link,” Ani explained. “I don’t think we could bring it back if it ran off again.”

Ilto sighed wearily. A grey cloud of sorrow passed over his skin. “Then I have only a few more matters to attend to before I die. We’ll need to arrange for a funeral feast.”

“Siti, please—” Ani began.

“No, don’t argue with me. I’m tired. It’s time for me to go. You’ll be a good elder. Will you take Ninto as your entoo?”

Ani gave a faint flicker of agreement. Ninto would care for her during werrun, and sponsor her when she became an elder. It still seemed to be an impossible prospect. Even now, Ani couldn’t imagine herself as an elder. She wasn’t ready, didn’t want to be ready.

“Good,” Ilto said. “You couldn’t have a better one. There is one more thing I need to ask you. Will you take the new creature as your atwa? No one else knows it as well as you do. No one else could do it.”

Stunned, Ani could only manage a weak pink ripple of astonishment. She hadn’t really thought about her choice of atwa. She had been too busy looking after Ilto and the new creature to think about such things. The thought of choosing an atwa upset her deeply. It was as though choosing an atwa would be agreeing to let Ilto die. She still didn’t want to accept his death.

The choice of an atwa wasn’t lightly made, either. Her life would revolve around it. She would spend the rest of her days looking after the plants and animals in her atwa, keeping them in harmony with the other atwa and with the rest of the forest.

She had always assumed she would become a member of the Tainka atwa. It was Ilto’s, and she was the most familiar with it. The idea of taking this creature as her atwa shocked her. The thing had no place here, and she hated it for what it had done to her sitik.

“But siti, it’s killing you!” Ani said. “How could I accept it as my atwa?”

A ripple of deep burgundy irony passed over Ilto. “Ani, I knew the risks, but I chose to save the creature’s life. I chose to risk my life transforming it, even though I knew it was dangerous. Besides, I have healed what it did to me. My death is my choice. I don’t want to leave the village, and live and die alone in the forest. I want to die here, where I have lived so long. I am a part of Narmolom. I don’t want to live anywhere else.”