The Heartwood busted teeth

For @Atshen

After discovering Astraios' frozen corpse in the ruin of the Sentinels, and speaking with Indie, Akantha dismissed the darker woman. She then deviated southward in search of the other members scattered to the winds during the storm. She hoped she wouldn't encounter a similar scene as she had with the consort, for she was uncertain if her heart could take the beating. The Amazonian had taken it upon herself to protect them all, as one of the larger females of the group, and the most experienced in defending and combat. Not to say that the rest of her sisters were incapable, but it was simply easier to shoulder the burden rather than expect them all to carry the weight.

Day turned to night that turned to dawn as she reached yet another burnt up forest. The skeletal remains of the towering trunks reached spindly fingers out towards the sky, but there was no life to be found here. Everything that once thrived here was now a hollow, ghostly husk. The trees bore no green—in places where the snow ran bare, the ground was barren. It was a uniform monochrome spectrum of death. She cupped her ears as she meandered in a wide searching pattern, moving from one game trail to the next in search of something familiar to ease her anxious heart.

Akantha reached a stream, frozen completely over from the cold, and stopped to lick at the smooth surface. The taste was slightly stale, but the cool moisture slaked what little thirst she had.