She hoped to see these paths take them to where they wanted to go. All the while, she was listening to the mountain itself -- or trying, anyway, on the fly like this, in hopes that it would reveal its secrets. Somehow, these paths eventually had to give way to one that would go to the springs; she wanted to see their efforts find success.
Then, Ferdie took her focus and she growled playfully at him as his strides lengthened. She wondered what he intended as he overtook her with relative ease and watched sharply, even yipping at him when he sunk down to make her think she would have a good chance to pounce him, but just as quickly as he had assumed that position, he sprung away into the brush. Ame followed.
She may not have understood why, but it was easy for her to do. In times like these, alone and romping (with the underlying tone of purpose, eventually) with Ferdie across the mountain -- his mountain, with a little of her help, too, she felt.. well, good. Amekaze liked her home here and wanted to see them able to keep it this way, for many more days like these to come.
But she was not gaining ground on him easily. He pulled away and for a moment, she could no longer see him. But with the rest of her senses keened in and her body flattened out to a full sprint, she fixed this.
When she could spot him, her determination lent her a new surge of speed and she worked hard to close in. He may have had the longer legs to give him a better stride, but she would not let him have the easy victory over her -- not without exhausting all of her speed in the process.
She drew steadily nearer and when the time was right, pounced forward towards Ferdie's hips and aimed to nip at his rump. Or, if it was all she could get, perhaps his tail. Either way she was just looking to proclaim that she had caught him -- even if just barely, and then the second contact was made, she darted away abruptly. The paths were changing again and this time it was more subtle. Her burst of fleeing speed downgraded to a bouncing canter with her ears quivering, standing as tall as she could make them.
While outrunning Ferdie was still a priority, and why she threw a few extra zig-zags into her run to keep it unpredictable, she did not want to find a wrong path too. She was looking for the sulfuric tint of the hot springs to reveal itself to her soon, and growing impatience to finally meet their destination was difficult to reign in. Ame breathed deep and kept speeding down the trails that curved across the mountainside.
![[Image: 5ifpFkc.png?1]](http://i.imgur.com/5ifpFkc.png?1)
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」