Bearclaw Valley Ghosts of our past

I AM SO EXCITED. <33

After a morning of scouring the cliffside, Nanook had found their den. The one they had moved to after the flood. The one to which she had fled after drawing her sister's blood. The memory had come so quick upon her she had retreated from the place without entering, down the twisting towpath as fast as she could hurry, until her paws pressed into level ground. Now she could just make out the entrance from where she lay amongst the Valley's grasses, a dark score in the rugged shield, a comfort, and a terror the same.

A soft breeze played through the meadow, and eddied the grasses around her to lull her pounding heart. The gales of the previous day had subsided to a whisper. Yet though her fears quieted the same in less familiar places, the memories of the Valley sang muted songs in her ears, some louder than others. Down by the river, up near the den, here in this meadow. And in each place where her ghosts pressed her with the haze of pictures and sounds and scents loomed the question that never stopped accusing. Their parent's separation. Sesi's disappearance. Ma's death.

Was this really all her fault?

The weight of the walls seemed to press against her, and Nanook stole her stare away from the cliff to lay her head against the ground. She had run far, far away, and in tearing herself from the lands, she tore away the curse and punishment with her. Everything was for her family that remained... and yet, as she came of age, and her childish thoughts shifted to those of what this world had made her, she wondered.

Maybe she didn't need a curse to take her family away. Maybe she had lost them all on her own.