Arrow Lake Sometimes this is nothing but smoke.

With @Akiri having earned the task of tending to the cubs, Durnehviir stole away for some time to herself beyond the territory. Her trip to the Emberwood some days before had given her a brief taste of freedom that she found herself yearning for, and with their numbers having begun to thin since the bear attack, she saw it as a good excuse to see about recruiting some loners to pad out the ranks.

She followed her homeland's namesake South, trailing the riverbank and enjoying the thrum of its current. It had always soothed her as an infant, she recalled, and it was strange how the sound took her back to her own childhood despite the years she'd been gone. Swiftcurrent was in her blood, just as she was hopeful that her children would love the land enough to keep them from straying as they grew.

The creek brought her to a vast lake, and she paused at its Easternmost egde to lap at its crisp surface. Thirst quenched, the russet beauty licked her lips and lifted her muzzle to look upon the vast mountains before her. She thought fondly of her uncle then, and wondered where he'd gotten to; she'd last seen him upon those cliffs almost a year ago. Exhaling softly, Durnehviir lashed her feathery tail and pressed on with her nose to the pebbled shore in search of something worth following.