Emberflame Ridge You carry my fears as the heavens set fire

She fell.

A descent into the darkness deep down the slope of the mountain. 

Nutuyikruk had gotten so close to the peak, climbing one foot after the other with the call of Muskrat's distant voice urging her on. It was distant, vacant, even, but the shadow girl charged forward. Higher, closer, reaching for the top, and there came a moment in the beautiful glory of the climb that a mistake happened. Mindless, focused only upwards, scaling the overhead spikes of stone with nimble legs.

It took a single slip.

She'd not known what it was like to experience a horror so great that it did not have time to surface on her smiling face. The girl did not scream, staring at the peak growing ever smaller. An alpinist's dream that was ripped away before a dreaming girl's very eyes. 

The sun passed many times. The first held no feeling. Numb down the neck, and legs that could not move. There was no greater shame than asking for help.

Time next had been slow. Hunger grew a cruel reminder of the simple nature that was survival. No more visions. No more hopes. Hope became waiting for the owl overhead to drop its prey in the nights. It's great wingspan casted a feathered shadow when the moonlight filtered in between the clouds and trees. Snow had accumulated atop her fur. One day, she could twitch her paw. The next, a leg. All four. Stronger became her neck.

Until she could walk, and she walked-- calling for Muskrat. Who never came. Soon, Nutuyikruk was tired of being the one found. 

But soon days turned into weeks, then near months.
She didn't know how long it had been.

But she was back now, searching for the only place she'd ever gotten to truly call home. Without mother.

She did not know she wouldn't find it.

YOINKS

A creeping power coursed through her veins. 

The north in her blood felt alive here in the frozen trees as she raced after a snowshoe hare, paws drumming a steady rhythm into the frost-hardened earth. Each step swelled her confidence, her independence, and as she bore down on the creature she knew this was the right path for her. 

A predictive swerve, a direction changed in a heartbeat - but it was the wrong call. Teeth bit on empty air as the hare sped into the snow-laden forest, leaving Yuralria panting with nothing to show for her efforts. 

Frustration bloomed in her chest. The feeling of loss, the first of many challenges, must be overcome. But how? Before she could dwell much on it, a snapping twig nearby caught her attention.

GASPS!! Ref tag<3

Did the mountains still howl between their sunken valleys when the winds blew from the east? 

Did the boy grow as much as she had in that time? Some days the grass looked farther away than it had been the last. The soils did not feel so firm and the trees did not feel so daunting. Would it be first joy on the face of @Hex or disappointment? Determined to find out, no matter its answer.

She'd pray to his spirits for forgiveness after. Should it be now?

A wind like nothing of the earth shocked through her distant side. A blur of a body that was gone before the whip of her face could follow it, but her feet had. Wait!

Catching up turned into a challenge that had failed before it started, but the hunt would not be put to rest. Her feet thundered quicker than they'd ever had since the fall, and the pain did not stop the fueled desire to simply see someone.

When they stopped, so did she! Slow, trying to hide away her heavy breath out her nose and still her racing chest. Did they see her? "Um! Hello?"

Too caught up in the thrill of the chase, Yuralria hardly noticed she had a shadow until voice piped up behind her.

"Oh-!" a sound of surprise escaped her lips, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm the steady rise and fall of her chest. Turning to face the owner of the voice revealed a girl of similar age to her, with auburn fur and rounded jade eyes. A distant memory tugged at her like an ebbing tide, a vague familiarity that had her hold the other's gaze for a moment longer than necessary.

With a shrug and a defeated huff, she cast the impossible thought aside with an awkward shuffle of paws. "Guess you saw all of that, huh?" 

SO sorry for the wait im just now fixing my sleep schedule <3

A pause of an inhale, and then an exhausted breath that fled out into laughter. "Yes! All of it!" So long it had been since something had felt so exhilarating! Perhaps in a bad way before a good one, but was that not good too when the end had been so silly? Why, the other girl gave her a run for all of her bones, even if there weren't many to begin with.

Sometimes strange tingles ran up her legs. A bit of a numbing sensation, like a million tiny pine needles into the fur. Nutuyikruk's tail jingled! So fast she was. "I'm built more for.. Things not running, I think! But you," a girlish awe, wondrous, "you were so fast!" Too fast for her! 

take care of yourself first <3

The admission drew warmth to each of Yura's cheeks and she found herself turning away in embarrassment, a sheepish smile tugging her lips as laughter rang out across the ridge. She had half expected to be poked fun of, but instead the yearling before her seemed fascinated. Inexplicably so! 

"You need to be fast to catch rabbits," she replied almost matter-of-factly, words harsher than she had anticipated. "-but that doesn't always work. As you can probably tell." Apologetically now, Yuralria wagged her tail in hopes that the sentiment got across to her admirer. Her head tilted then, intrigued, for while the chase had made the stargirl out of breath, it had seemed to take more of a toll on the other. "What sorta things are you good at then? 

Why, they seemed to take the skill of rabbit-hunting very seriously. So, Nutuyikruk made sure to show both ears were up and listening before relaxing to go, "Apparently so." 

@Ezra taught her egg hunting. Now she ate the yolks of low-nesting birds to stay fed in the late fall and early winter, and sometimes, "I'd say I've gotten to be a pretty decent birdcatcher! You don't have to be very fast for those, but you have to think quickly." And forever now, grateful for his memory. He was a fond thought for each kill, and she prayed for his safety and the health of his mother in gratitude. A ritual now.

As the breath caught up to her, she teetered on her feet nervously. "Sorry I chased you! Erm! Well, I was wondering if you lived in the mountains near here?" 

Yuralria was not sure she appreciated such an active audience, but nevertheless the girl's presence was inoffensive enough that soon she was relaxing on her haunches in a patch of melted snow. 

"It's good to have a quick mind even if you don't necessarily have quick feet," for she was beginning to like whoever this was. "That's impressive! Birds have never been my forte." Only having dabbled in the art once or twice, she had given up pretty quickly once the turkeys had given her the feeling of uncanny valley.

She watched as the girl swayed, debating briefly whether to act as support before deciding swiftly against it. "It's fine, y'know, you startled me is all. But no, my home's way over there," gesturing vaguely with her muzzle over the tops of the mountains. "Someplace called Moonglow. I'll be heading back there soon, actually. What about you?"

"Moonglow.." The name hit her tongue. There was something strange in saying it. 

"Can't say I've heard of it! But I will remember." 

Damn the distances. "Oh, darn!" Far-off packlands running in the lower regions out there somewhere. Sickness still persisted. Vagabonds could be difficult to stray from, and she thought pointedly of the dark woman who pinched her teeth on her coat. That one too was likely ill. Muskrat and Makono handled it quickly! Perhaps they were home at the ridge again!

Shaking her pelt, the girl had a defeated fall of ears and pulled the corners of her lips up sheepishly. 

"My homes up there," Nutuyikruk nosed towards the dark mountains. 

"I belong to Shadow Ridge. Took a nasty fall though and didn't make the climb back up. I was hoping you were newblood to fill me in on what I've missed out on all this time. Guess I should have yelled out before chasing you rabidly," she laughed again. "Thanks for the lesson on that."

A slow nod then, acknowledging the girl's odd behaviour. The name had stirred some reaction, though it had not been what Yura had been expecting. Then again, what had she been expecting? Recognition? Indifference? Instead, she was caught in some strange between.

Explained by what came next. "Are - are you okay?" Besides the apparent memory loss and off-balance, Yuralria's gaze began to scrutinize her companion's body for any obvious injuries. Shadow Ridge. "I haven't heard of your place either," she admitted. "Can I help you get back up there?"

"As okay as I can be. I feel now the strangest pineneedles poking at my back legs. Isn't that wonderful?" She teased at her own issues with a sly smile and the quietest laugh. It was what it was and there would be no changing it as of the current present. What mattered more was moving forward, and for the distant mountains looming overhead, that would be the next challenge to overcome. Climbing that again, this time on legs that did not feel her own.

It was relief that was in her next breath. Maybe it would be easier with someone else there, and admittedly? There was a strange other reason that Nutuyikruk had chased down the girl. "That would be very appreciated. Please, come with me. They will be kind to you with my word in. There may be goat meat to fill your belly on your travel back to your home, too."

But even she did not know why she'd felt so..drawn. She did not want to see her new friend go yet, even if Nutu wasn't very good at keeping friends.

Pineneedles. Well, that didn't sound good. Yura imagined it similar to waking up on a sleeping limb, but where that sensation was always short lived, she wondered then if her new friend's may be permanent. Her legs were likely damaged by the fall, her injuries more internal given that she could see no outward wounds. 

She wondered then, how did one fix such trauma? "That would drive me crazy," she joked then, though her eyes betrayed her concern. Perhaps it was best to keep a positive outlook, for Yura did not want the girl to know what she suspected.

With her offer accepted, Yura's tail waved happily behind as she motioned for the other to lead the way. "Sounds good! I've never tried goat meat before - does it taste much like deer?" Between idle conversation, she walked close but not too close, ready to support if the girl were to stumble.

"I'm Yuralria, by the way. What's your name?"

It drove Nutuyikruk crazy, yes! They took route for the ridge. Nutuyikruk was eager to lead the way, and for good reason, it was Hex, Makono, and perhaps the younger children of their ownrship to see again! Muskrat could have made a return in that time, and then she could do as the girl had been desiring since the mountain had plummeted her down the mountains: Give a new name. A ridge name! But perhaps already it was given. Had it not been Lynx?

"I would say it is unique to its own, but if I had to describe it? It is almost like deer meat, but much sweeter. And if you do not like that, there are lots of hares."

Yuralria. It sounded so familiar. Few names had come and gone in the ridge. 

"I warn you, for every person I have given my name to, I have gotten a twisted face as they twist their tongue up on it. I'm Nutuyikruk. You can call me Nutu– or..Lynx, or Nu–!"

There was no hiding the excitement in her companion's demeanour now. It was infectious! Yuralria kept a close pace behind as she traversed the path as easily as she had done the terrain on the spine, now a toothy smile lifting her expression. "I hope your ridge friends are as kind as you," she beamed.

Cut short by the name that hung then in the chilly air. "Say that again?" incredulous denial that may have been mistaken for a twisted tongue, had it not been the clatter of pebbles in her hurry to see the girl - Nutuyikruk's?! - face again. "That's not possible. She left moons ago, she- she's gone!" But already a sinking realisation began to consume her, for now she could see the resemblance in those great green eyes. They had never found a body, not like - gods, she could hardly think of it.

All at once, it returned.

Disbelief. "No."

Only glimpses. The visions of sitting in that warm den on a cold night, feeling that great pit of distress, seeing the faces of others just her age hanging by as they took quietly in what she could not. Blurs, and yet they were vivid.

Stopped in tracks, looking into the face of who she knew to be– "... Yura?" Her voice melted.

Yuralria ringed. But Yura chimed with holy bells loud enough to chip bone.