Duskfire Glacier don't build my cities with what could get taken back

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she'd realized upon Sunny's return that she'd hated who she'd become; running off the smoke from burning shame and guilt and grief that stabbed through her at every though of her mate, of her father, of her siblings. at the stinging pain that came when she thought of him as her mate. slinking through the territory as if she didn't belong there, when she was still a leader alongside him. 

and so, upon waking, she'd decided to forego the numb ritual of hunting until exhaustion set in, choosing instead to trek north. there she might find reprieve from the heat, and she could distance herself from the borders for more than a day. 

the cold seeped through her pawpads now, and she could almost imagine it as it gradually cooled her limbs, focus on the relief it brought from summer's relentless rays. there were scents here; many of them, she could not simply ignore them and forage on to the heart of the glacier, for where surely the cold would be greater still. instead, she adjusted her trail and stalked the perimeter of the ice plain, tail wafting behind her in simple pleasure.