Redhawk Caldera Past lives

Set today. Preference is given to @Peregrine for this one, but anyone is welcome!

The slowly setting sun was wedged between a shelf of clouds so that it looked oblong and far bigger than it should have in its momentary tangerine hue. Several shades of pastel blue and green and darker grey painted the sky around this display, with cloud cover shifting on the warm summer breeze. It was positively picturesque, what with the leafy green of the earth’s life returning and the image of devastation disappearing from her mind’s eye. She had often imagined how her once temporary home had handled the ransacking blow the locusts had dealt, but preferred that she hadn’t seen it at all. She was sure it had been no different than her experience even further inland, to the east, where she had spent the past seven months or more. She couldn’t decide how long it had really been, aside from how long it had felt.

In attempt to avoid embarrassment if she was asked to retrieve a kill on the spot a second time and couldn’t, the lithe little female already had a small rabbit clamped firmly in her jaws as she made her way towards the caldera. The only uncertainty left on her mind was whether he would let her stay or turn her away — or whether he would recognize her at all. Someone had intimated to her once that older wolves kept memories that were selective and spread thin, whereas her limited life experience made the mind cling tightly to everything it touched. At that moment, she wasn’t sure what she would do when Peregrine surfaced in her field of vision, but she skulked about perhaps a mile from the borders with every intention of finding out.