Blacktail Deer Plateau Don't let the sun outshine you

Diane came down from Porcupine Ridge without knowing exactly why. Most of the night had gone by without seeing her sleep, and the restless girl found her way past the borders of her home shortly after dawn. Light yawned and spread ahead of her as she went, hours draining as she sought to expend the coils of energy building pleasantly within her as the earth warmed and spring began coaxing everything to blossom. Diane was beginning to feel much like a flower herself; the petals of her mirth were lengthening in bloom, and the stem of her— made entirely up of nervousness and self-doubt— was beginning to pale by comparison to her golden leaves.

Light filtered through the soft, thin canopy, and the woods saw her pass through alternating lengths of shade and warmth as she went. Her thoughts came back and forth too, shifting from the present moment of her movements to her life on the Ridge. Diane hadn't ever thought that she would feel quite so content or at home again. The crippling fear from the destruction of her birthplace had convinced her of such. But the might of her fear had been curbed by the wolves of the Ridge, and here she was feeling as safe as she'd ever felt, in a territory not her own, but so near to home that the safety she knew there was carried with her in a residual effect.

She could not identify what was making her so boundless that day, but she was eager to see more of everything, eager to surpass places she had not before. Since she had been recently working on disassociating rivers, lakes, and smaller sources of water from the vast, unending bows of the ocean, it was easier for her to approach freshwater now. With this rediscovered bravery, she headed for the river bordering the west face of the plateau.

@Goldhawk