Sawtooth Spire radiowaves

she's terrible at climbing. that becomes obvious when the ground stops its gentle sloping and begins to pose a real challenge. helped along by @Moonshadow, the girl makes slow progress but is fast losing hope that the river really has an end. she's starting to imagine that it wouldn't be the concrete start point she'd thought it would have, either, as the river frequently branches off and is gradually thinning. 

begin to feel the strain, she stops, drinking deeply from the river. her gaze falls on the sheer rock that edges one side of the river, and the tiny droplets that drip from a crevice in the rock. aloud, she wonders, "does the water feel colder?" she's sure it does but isn't quite sure why. she'd have to climb a lot higher than she was physically able to to see the snow and ice on the top of the peaks; the true source of the river.

As they trekked up the mountain, she was careful to help her daughter in her climbing and stopped when she did and took I. Her question. “The farther we go up the colder everything gets. You don’t know snow yet but it lays on the top.” She loved how inquisitive her children were and hoped all questions they asked were ones they had the answer too.

moonshine pauses her drinking, glancing over her shoulder as her mother explains. her maw opens in a soft "o", and immediately wonders just how cold it could get. she hasn't experienced much cold beside the water of the rivers and lakes, and those barely compared to the depths of winter's chill. 

she was tired, but intrigued, and in no mood to go back to blackfeather. the world was bright and unbound and it seemed with each question, each step, some new truth was revealed. "what's snow? have you been all the way to the top, before?" she was quite content to sit here, panting slightly.

She smiled at the awe her child showed. “Snow is frozen water that falls from the sky and really white.” She began with a simple explanation. “I haven’t been to the top of this mountain but I’ve been on another.” She shuttered at the thought but kept her composure. You will know snow in months time when winter comes.”

she begins to think that the river's start isn't as concrete as she'd imagined. she thinks that it will only continue to grow smaller, to split off, and perhaps soon it'll grow even smaller than the tiny dripping tributary from the rock face.  one glance up the mountain tells her that that question will remain unanswered, at least for today. still, she's overjoyed with how far up they've come already - she can see that dark canopy of blackfeather in the distance. 

she begins picking her way back down, asking, "can you tell me about winter, again?" the inevitable change of seasons fascinates her, she can not imagine anything but summer.

She thought back to her first winter after her and her brother were removed from the pack. It had been a harsh one but they powered through. “In winter, the weather changes. It gets colder and snow falls from the sky blanketing the earth in white. Most animals at this time hibernate meaning they sleep till spring. We however live as normal through it. It’s a beautiful thing but sometimes it’s hard because prey is short.” She decided to tell her mostly good things.

"does all the white get boing?" she asks, thinking surely it must. the shadows of blackfeather are enough to drive her to the border territories once every few days, she can't imagine the whole wild looking the same. 

a rock crumbles beneath her paw, and she takes a quick step back, watching it bounce all the way down. wondering how much it would hurt to do the same, she resumes climbing down, with a little more caution.

She smiled at her question at how innocent it was and she hoped that her first winter would be better than her. “Sometimes But like all seasons it soon passes then summer comes back.”

A contemplative hum is all she offers, too busy traversing a steep decline to answer. her face is screwed up in concentration as she descends, finally finding level ground again after a short hop. turning back to her mother, she waits for her to navigate the drop before speaking. "do the mountains ever end? or is it just rock, forever, this way?"

So curiously her pups were and sometimes they asked many that she couldn’t answer so she would to the best of her abilities. “I believe they end eventually but I’ve never climbed one to the top to find out. “ she gave her a smile. “Maybe one day you will.”

"I will," she decides then, resolute. moonshine inches down another incline, learning to test potential holds before using them. it takes some practice, but she's an astute learner, and so their speed gradually increases as they go down the way they came, almost. moonshine veers slightly to the left, spotting the vast green that spreads out beyond blackfeather, and not quite ready to go home yet. she'll stretch this adventure as long as she's able.