Heron Lake Plateau i could tell you that i saw you, but i couldn't make it up the stairs

tags for reference - AW

with @Raleska and @Svalinn asleep under the heavy brow of a studded cave, caiaphas saw her opportunity to slip out undetected. she had not seen @Blondine since their parting of ways shortly after acceptance into redhawk, and while the sylph entertained thoughts of the ruddy wolf's whereabouts, she did not actively search her out.

caiaphas knew she had to keep herself busy, particularly to slake the constant onslaught of grief that loomed like some predatory menace in her mind. she still had not found peace following her mate's sudden disappearance (and subsequent death, though she had no way to confirm it save for the pawprints she had witnessed herself along the riverbank). it still cut her in the most raw and ugly manner, when she glanced upon the troupe of children expecting five and instead seeing two. it was not the end she wanted for her children, nor the end they deserved -- and at night the sylph wondered if they were dead, stolen, or simply gone.

every part of her wished to hunt them down and extricate them from the wilderness that had ensnared them -- but she was too old, too haggard from their month-long exodus, and quite simply, burnt out from exhaustion. she would not have survived much longer in the wild, and as she raked a paw along the dirt in search of salamanders beneath the leaf-litter, caiaphas wondered if her family would ever see the coast again.