Re: The Frozen Wastes
Eli had come into the company of these two by way of his parents going missing. Until he finds them, he doesn't really have a home to go back to. But he knows they are alive and refuses to go to an orphanage... he has been to one already and it was worse (and scarier) than being out in the wild.
Normally a passive, withdrawn boy, Eli is immovable on his two tasks of finding his parents and not being taken in by an orphanage.
Eli hugs himself, shivering from the cold. To Mittens, he timidly says, "She grew up in a normal village, but knew that her destiny was greater by far; so she pursued it with outstretched arms and an eager heart that raced almost as fast as her ability to meet danger head-on."