The Sunspire Act One, Melodrama

She was growing more comfortable with the idea—that this was her mountain, the mountain of Tuatha Dé, a fierce tribe of warriors and druids. A family, closer than hers had ever been. Muirrin did not yet have many to follow her, but she had enough. Even if they were five, even if they were three—it was enough. It was better than being alone, slowly going hungry and slowly dying. From that small number, they would grow stronger and larger, a force not to be trifled with. A tribe intimately intwined with the earth and one another. She knew this, and so Muirrin had returned to the place that would be hers, to begin preparations for the day when they would become pack.

Muirrin slumbered within one of the rocky caverns, at the edge of where the grassy slope met the harsh wall of stone. It was a good place, sheltered from the weather—dark and warm. "Ohhhhh-oh-ohh-ohhh," the wind sighed, though it was not the soothing call of ancestors... but the high-pitched shriek of banshees. Muirrin, now wakened, growled and moved to her paws. They foretold of death, she knew, and though there was little one could do to stop it (at least, according to legend), the Blackthorn fully intended to try.

Her sleek form moved down the slope, her pace swift and solid. “How could you have left me behind, my beloved?!” came the wind's next cry, and Muirrin paused, her golden eyes scanning the dusk for the source. A ghost? But that could not be right; she had heard ghosts before, but had never known them to speak words that she could comprehend. More voices followed, but they did not carry the same hysterical intensity as the voice before, and Muirrin could not make out the words. For a moment, she pondered returning to her cave—but no. My mountain, she thought, and resumed her swift pace until she came upon the culprits.

She had arrived in time to hear the last syllables of the child's question, and rather than speak, Muirrin remained still—her posture tall, tail high—to observe and assess the situation unfolding on her front lawn.