Wapun Meadow I won't turn back anymore

Thanks for starting <3 And my apologies for taking longer to reply than expected!

Her whole body buzzed with the adrenaline she'd felt upon reaching the marsh, recognition thick. Mother had brought them this way after they'd left the Valley, she was sure of it. Most of the landmarks back to the Valley were hazy at best, but the marsh never lost clarity. It was where the Maplewood wolves had whisked her away to another life, one Nanook had never been able to take as her own. They had been kind to her, but they were not her family.

She hadn't stopped thinking about her father and Xan, and the more isolated she made herself, the more obsessed she became with finding them. They were out there somewhere, and the Valley was the first place she'd check. There had been a river that ran through the Valley, one that had flooded the day Leo came from the storm. There was a river here, too, one mother had made them rest beside on the way up. Nanook didn't take the time to think that those rivers might not be the same.

The skies were clear when Nanook left the Wetlands to trace the river South, but somewhere after leaving Otatso the world took on a filmy haze. The stubborn girl knew the fog would thicken, but she didn't turn back. She'd come too far, and she sped up her step. Yet the world grew murkier the further South she drew. Her blinking increased and her eyes simultaneously widened, though she knew full well she couldn't clear her vision. So Nanook pressed her ears tall to catch every distorted sound and kept her path tight along the edge of the creek. When she tried to probe into the veil, the heavy air rattled her lungs with a tickle and a grunt caught in her throat before she fell into a sharp bout of coughs that echoed through the cover of fog.