Redhawk Caldera i warn you not to doubt the silence before the storm

Wildfire’s frantic burst of energy guttered out like a dying candle nearly the instant she set foot outside the dark forest. She wanted to collapse. Instead, she mustered her very last scrap of strength and ran blindly, the needle of her inner compass spinning wildly.

By some enormous stroke of fortune, she headed due west, directly toward an old, familiar landmark. When Wildfire’s eyes lifted to see the caldera, she nearly wept. She drug herself toward it, breathless and trembling now.

She stopped about half a mile outside the borders, unable to manage even one more step. She buckled with a small cry. Her bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the smokestack before drifting to something else in the nearer distance.

She recognized her mate and children, despite how different they looked from the last time she set eyes on them. Wildfire sobbed quietly, sure that this was a mirage and that her birthplace had also become her death place.