Bearclaw Valley Welcome to Rising Sun Valley, Brother.

While Clary had spilled the well-hidden beans of her forbidden excursion to the mountains with Steph, she hadn’t mentioned the man who had tried to talk them back to safety - resident of Bearclaw Valley, and mother’s own brother. The idea of meeting him again brought the smallest of shadows to her mother’s proposed trip, if only because she was nervous he would somehow say something that would change Valette’s mind and get her in trouble after all.

Yet the anxiety held nothing next to the excitement that came with mother’s offer, and Clary leapt from the ground in a flurry of paws and a quick-whipping tail. The girl danced in a squirm around Valette’s legs and licked at her chin while Ezra made his decision. If only Steph hadn’t hurt herself - she side-eyed her sister, but could place how she felt toward it all. Disappointed? Justified? No. As much as her anger fizzled at Steph, this was still something they should have been doing together.

But she wouldn’t let those feelings dampen her enjoyment of the trip. With their party decided, Clary first took position a few leaps ahead of her mother, never straying too far and circling back time and again until she settled at a clip along Valette's side. Knowing herself grown, she offered herself as a support to keep the bison hide from dragging, letting the trailing bits of the heavy skin drape over her shoulders and head, quietly pretending she herself was some kind of valiant Bison Queen and trying not to think about how much more fun this would be if Steph were with her.

She recognized the scent when they cane upon the hulk of the Valley and Clary stared wide-eyed at the sheer size of the encircling mountains. It still would have been so cool to have gotten to the top of them, and maybe one day she’d try again when she wasn’t so small - but her present thoughts jarred with mother’s howl. She tacked her own loud and shoddy voice onto the end of the note, and stopped a second later with a tip of her head to catch their echoes.

She giggled and shuffled in place, and tried to nod solemnly at mother’s instructions, but being serious was hard work when you were excited, and even more when you were Clary.