Heron Lake Plateau I guess I keep a-gamblin'

Rapidly had Raleska grown, these last several weeks. In a matter of days it seemed she shot up, not unlike some raw shoot from a prolific plant. Gone were the hard lines of travel from her eyes, and eradicated were the signs of subtle starvation ravaging her features. No - now Raleska was in the hale court of youth, well-fed and well-kept. She would always be smaller than perhaps she should have been, in light of the harsh crucible presented in her early months, yet even the memories of such hardship seemed to recede from the girl's waking life.

While her body seemed to triplicate, her persona remained largely unchanged. There was little bloom to be had in her demeanor, which seemed even now as solemn as a bleak winter. Occasionally the girl would entertain @Svalinn in his vociferous demands for play, and while the heart-pain of losing her siblings and father was slowly ebbing, Raleska still seemed churlish in comparison to her sunny half-sibling.

Prone to inspecting whatever camp her mother dictated, Raleska was presently shuffling between a felled beech and the rot that transpired under it. She could hear somewhere in the trunk's hollow a scratching - faint but quite evident when she placed a long ear lengthwise against the bough. Frustrated by her inability to access whatever lurked under the pale tree's hide, she struck the tree's surface and listened as the faint buzzing suddenly stopped.