Stone Circle Next Step

Clary drank in everything. All that she'd seen from the distant safety of the den now grew ten, twenty, a thousand times bigger and higher above her, taller and greater than anything her finite mind had ever conceived or had even begun to understand. Trees and shrubbery teemed above and around her, and she raced circuits about the slow-moving caravan of her family. Though her legs stung with the tire of never having moved so much so fast, the wonder of being out here fueled her to keep going. At times she checked back on Steph and Ezra, and sometimes bopped at the same plant her sister nosed at, but never for as long a stay. There was so much more to see and smell and (sometimes when mama wasn't looking) taste!

When the forest thinned, Clary charged ahead with a back glance over her shoulder, only to look forward against with enough time to stop short of crashing into a different sort of tree. She jerked her head back and blinked before she thrust out against to suck in a deep whiff of the cool, stony surface towering for heights above her. They weren't like any tree or plant she'd ever seen, but then, they weren't quite rock, either. Perplexed, Clary frowned and shimmied away up, both spooked by the standing rocks and running on the adrenaline high. The fur fluffed around her neck and she spun around to bounce over to Steph, who seemed to have picked up her speed of exploration since leaving the forest behind.

Though Clary couldn't make sense of the sudden dread that took her, something about this place pricked her funny, and she figured it wouldn't hurt to stick near her older sister for now. She brushed up against Steph and looked to her sister with bright, wide eyes, to invite her to lead their exploration today, before glancing around for Ezra to see if he wanted to join them, too.