Wheeling Gull Isle ii. moondust

It was the hardest journey of her life so far, and she'd already weathered some difficult ones. Hungry and tired, but too afraid to approach a mother with a young pup, she remained a distance behind, merely trying to keep the woman in her sights.

Perhaps this hadn't been worth it. Now home felt even further away, and there was no refuge to be found.

Everything changed when Maegi crossed a rise and the glittering expanse of blue-green rose before her. Awed, the girl stared for a long moment, jaw agape. What brilliant field was this? Stumbling in her exhausted excitement, Maegi made her way to the flatlands, paws sinking in the unfamiliar white-gold dirt. The cries of foreign birds rang out overhead; a pungent smell ruled over all--almost like blood, but fresher, cleaner.

The field broke apart in ripples, cresting into lines of white--like long clouds--before dissolving into nothing. Maegi approached and was shocked, letting out a giggle, to have a wave roll against her ankles and found that it was water. It was all water. Infinitely vaster than the pond in Spiderlings' Glen.

She was so enamored by this newness that she had lost track of the woman, and felt a momentary surge of panic. Then she noticed the bar of land that cut through the water, with the mother's scent and tracks trailing across it. She was far off, a dancing shadow in the distance, and--with a newfound resolve--Maegi crossed the land bridge, eyes flashing back and forth as she struggled to take everything in at once.

Finally, she came near to the woman's side, a small, white shadow. She kept a distance from the young pup, remembering how defensive Relmyna had been of her babes--so different from her own mother! But, then, that had been Potema--but looked up at the warrior she-wolf, head cocked in fascination.

"I followed you from Bearclaw Valley," she said bluntly, not wasting a moment on small talk. Her gaze raked across the paradise in which she now found herself. "Where are we?"