Ravensblood Forest saltwind

Maybe @Noxir?

Chagak still had not returned. As the days passed with no sign of her brother, Puffin began to worry for him. She did not think she could bear to lose the last of her family, not after so much loss already, and Chagak's continued absence sent her into a bit of a tailspin. It wasn't long before she decided that she should look for him.

Puffin reluctantly took one of the sturdiest pelts from the lodge for her things, one of the last that her mother had made before the sea swallowed her, and wrapped up a bit of dried fish for the journey. She marked around the lodge so that Chagak would recognize the fresh scent of her if he returned while she was gone. Then, early one morning as the sun crept into the sky, she set off alone with her pack.

It was days before she found anything resembling civilization farther up the coast. The lands by the sea were emptier than she remembered, but maybe it was only that the world seemed much larger now than it had in her childhood. Maybe the whole world felt empty like this. Puffin sniffed around the outskirts of the claimed land, searching for any hint of Chagak among the various scents.

It was the delicious smell of dried fish that had the phantom on the girl's trail. Silently at first, as she came in view of the forest, then blatantly as if to test her awareness. 

"What 'ave ye got there?" The snap of a twig accompanied his interception as he finally emerged from the gloom to study her in full. She was a tiny thing with all the sinew and stature of a youth not yet past her first year of age. Tail flagged and confident, though not unfriendly, he circled her once before coming to nudge the pelt with his nose.

Beneath the fishy aroma, there came an undertone of something familiar though faint - Moontide. "You're one of Rodyn's? Ye can be honest, kid. I ain't gonna hurt ye."