Stavanger Bay Starting Over Anew

If Lotte was surprised by how quickly Rouge wanted to be on the road, she didn’t show it. Her coal-pointed tail swayed languidly behind her in contentment as she glanced toward Teaghlaigh and gauged the hour. She was relatively familiar with the territories south of her forest home and felt comfortable enough — and confident enough — that if she wandered, she could return without issue. “I will travel with you for a time,” she agreed readily, bowing grandly with one foreleg outstretched and the other curled beneath the swell of her breast. In a continuation of that moment, she stretched her back and forequarters, then walked forward a few paces to stretch her hindquarters. “A pack used to live in the mountains south of here,” she mentioned, “but it seems they have migrated elsewhere.” That was a disappointment.

Lotte nodded toward Rouge, inviting her to take the lead. In Teaghlaigh, the soot-stockinged bard was Banríon — but outside it, she was only a wolf. She enjoyed the dualism of that — of being one wolf within the forest walls and another wolf without. She realized with some dismay that in many situations now, she would have to choose between playing her trickster games or acting as an ambassador for the Family.

That, she thought, was slightly disconcerting.