Otter Creek New and Untested Lands

Hey hey! (: Nanook is ready to do some meeting (or, well, I'm ready to force her to be. haha!)
Tagging @Valette for reference <3

It had been a hard thing, to leave Easthollow, harder than Nanook had wished for. Initially, she had planned to return Clary as she had promised, and to spend the afternoon catching up with her sister before she bade farewell to proceed in her travels. Instead, she had lingered for many days - not truly allowing the pack to absorb her again, but staying close enough to watch the lands and to deposit any prey she could along the borders, in places where the pack could retrieve the provisions she left. What else could she do? She had found her sister married, and expecting pups. Her legs itched to reap the knowledge of the world, but at the same time, she found her heart ached to stay behind. To take care of Desna. To help raise the pups. To be there, in case this man abandoned her sister, too.

Yet somehow, now, here she was, a long ways away from Easthollow, with only a plan to keep travelling west. Her sister had made poor choices in the past, yes, but so had she. And though it had taken some time, Nanook had learned from the mistakes she'd made. She could only hope and trust that Desna would learn from hers, too.

Which was easy, in theory, and easy when she was still close by. But trusting from a distance was hard, and now that she had put a mountain between her and Easthollow, Nanook found her body buzzed with the anxiety to turn back. Was it a bad idea to leave Desna and her choices behind? Despite the war, the Apaata kept moving and hoped that maybe, more distance would still her. The tumble of a river made her ears flick again. Distance, maybe - or maybe just a long, cold drink.

Cutting her trajectory, Nanook veered aside and descended a well-treed knoll toward the sound of the rush water. She didn't need to venture far before she came upon the stream, but when the bushes gave way to the thin stretch of shore, her head didn't dip to the water. Rather, she found her eyes drawn to the large, bent figure of an ice bear, or at least, a wolf who could have been. Nanook blinked at the stranger - he seemed lost in thought - and with a slow step, she eased closer to the water's edge. She made no other sound, out of habit more than stealth, and her gaze - intense and curious - didn't leave him.