Northstar Vale after laughter

[table width=72%][tr][td]

Though the vale had been recently claimed, all vestiges of safe entrance had not yet been erased by the expanding young pack, and the mountain valley seemed open to those who happened to pass through the stretches of land that had yet to be laden with packscent. Ixchel crossed one such of these unmarked miles, unaware of the presence that loomed here in the form of quite a few adolescents. She was further inland than she preferred, but she was willing to strike out as far from the coast as she needed to in order to find what it was her soul craved.

Mostly she thought her yearnings reached for the invisible tether to her siblings— spurring her to hunt for them as she went— but they were not children anymore, and her mind was not filled with worry for their day-to-day lives. Perhaps they were not where her heart lie; but if it was not with her blood, or with the Cortens on Meares and Vargas... then where was her home truly? Surely it was by the sea— except, it had always been there. Maybe now she was being called to something else.

Her thoughts fled her when she noticed a broad, slate-furred wolf some fair distance ahead, and with her guard up, she continued forward at a cautiously  slower pace.
 

[/td][/tr][/table]