Karakul does not appear to have any immediately brilliant ideas. She wanders back toward the edge of the camp where they came in.

"Well. There's Kivi. Not that Kivi's probably seen him, but I don't know what else you'd try. Besides maybe going to Drekar, I guess."

"That sounds like it might be inadvisable."

"Yeah! I feel like it might be."

"I don't want to give up, but I don't know what else to do..."

"It's - you know - it's always possible Drekar has him? And if they have him I don't think anyone around here would know how to get him back. I guess maybe you could buy him back, if you had someone they knew to approach them with, but you'd be competing with what they can get for him in - I don't even know. Qubba, probably. And that's if they even still have him."

"I don't know anyone who'd know how to buy someone from Drekar... and I don't think I have enough money to buy a person... although I guess the second thing is solvable if I spend enough time walking between settlements to buy things in one place and sell them in another..."

"Maybe. But if they have him now, then by the time you had the money he'd probably still be long gone."

"Probably," he agrees.

"We could ask if Kivi's seen him. If you want."

"All right. Let's do that."

Nod. "We should stay the night here, probably. See if we can buy some more food and water. Oh, and I was wondering if you could - possibly sell a thing for me. I don't think anyone's gonna give a good price to me, 'cause of the, uh, ancestral feud between our peoples. And mama says the thing to buy here is yarn, if you want to buy something. They make better yarn than we do."

"I can do that."

"Cool."

The thing is wool. Lots of wool, relative to the rest of what she's been carrying. She hands it over.

He can sell wool! And buy yarn! These, unlike planning expeditions to locate lost mentors, are tasks in which he is beginning to gain some confidence in his own basic competence! He's still not really sure what he's doing but he has at least, like, 10% of a clue.

Oh cool! Then they can buy some more supplies and... head to Kivi, she guesses, if that's the only other option available to them. She's never been there but she knows the way. It's three more days of walking, and if they hit the sand whenever they spot anyone else they can avoid running into anyone unpleasant. Karakul is slightly less nervous and jumpy than before, although she was pretty nervous to begin with, so she isn't yet very close to actual calm.

Nick continues to be very quiet and serious and kind of shy. If Karakul doesn't start any conversations, this is going to turn out to be a really uneventful trip.

Well, on the one hand, talking to people is terrifying. On the other hand, if she doesn't talk to anyone the whole way there and the whole way back, she might go slightly insane.

"So. Do you have, like....... parents....?" she tries, clearly casting around for a subject that won't automatically get a bunch of non-answers.

"I did, once. Lately I've mostly had Olaf. Not that he's - really very parentlike. He is not in fact very parentlike at all."

"He's just the closest thing you have?"

"I guess so."

She thinks about how bad her situation would be if she didn't even have parents. She would probably already be married.

"Well. We'll try to find him."

"Thank you for helping," he says quietly. "I really appreciate it."

"Mhmm! I figure you've gotta try to find him, and you won't get it done alone, not knowing where anyone is. So someone has to help you.

"I kinda wanted to see some other places, I think. Dunno why exactly. But this is probably one of the better opportunities to do it."

He nods thoughtfully. "Yes. That makes sense. I'm glad you're getting to see more places, then."

"Yeah. I guess. Probably be - good to get it out of my system, or something. Have some idea what's out there before I go home."