Ouroboros Spine and all of our shadows are ashes against the grain

For @Kroc!

Deep within the territory lied a lake that Echelon had never seen before. But then again, she hadn't gone looking for it either. Yet the size of it betrayed her ability to have spotted it from somewhere else — the forestry hid it, and the higher climes and ridges she had not yet fully explored. It rested off center and modestly, the banks already muddy and rank with growth. She traversed this area lightly, not willing to be trapped in old mud posing as dry earth as she carried a rather large bone along. The femur of an elk left behind from some hunt perhaps when the Spine was in lesser times, hardly chewed.

Whoever it belonged to before didn't matter — it was hers now, and she was unwilling to part with it but for few things. She drug it along, letting the bulbous end bump and rattle against whatever she met just to be a nuisance. It could have been carried just fine, but she didn't want to risk choking herself trying to carry it properly between the trees as she left the lakeside.

And besides, she thought as she banged it loudly off a rock, this was more fun.

agalloch — our fortress is burning... ii - bloodbirds