Phantom Hollow There's no place like home

She'll only be jailbait until November! ;)

She rose, grimacing in embarrassment. She felt something on her cheek and swiped a paw across it. It was just a smudge of dirt. "Yeah," she answered Dante's question, unable to bring herself to look at him for a moment. Then she forced a quiet laugh and admitted, "I'm really clumsy. I'm always tripping over something... usually my own legs." And now that the storm had chewed up and spat out the wilderness, there were plenty more obstacles to trip over.

After resuming their walk, Wildfire had a chance to process Dante's answer. "Oh," was all she said. She knew about Blacktail Deer Plateau and the word north was a giant red flag. She wondered what her parents would make of the camaraderie between herself and her hoary escort. Would they be angry with her for not upholding their grudge against northerners? Or perhaps Dante's assistance would change their minds about northern wolves altogether?

She wondered but she didn't mention any of these thoughts to Dante. It seemed they were in mutual agreement to avoid the subject. He made an observation about the storm damage being centralized here in the south. Wildfire frowned and unwittingly picked up on his train of thought. When she found her way home, what shape would the caldera be in? Would everyone be safe and unharmed? The caves had seemed pretty safe...

"What's that?" she asked suddenly, stopping and pointing her smudged muzzle to their left. It looked like a meadow, just flattened somehow. Of course, meadows were typically flat by definition but if the Naturalist had a guess, she would say that the storm had trampled this one a little bit further than normal.