Redtail Rise other loves, other vices

The sun bore down on her silvery summer coat. She could feel it on her skin, itchy and overbearing, but there was no escape anywhere nearby. Burnt earth stretched out around her for miles on every side. There were mountains and forests and gullies in the distance. They were not so far that she could not make it, but why should she bother? It seemed almost right that the sun was on her back, that she was alone and hungry. The heat was a punishment, and her isolation an penance.

One day, she would be absolved. One day, she would stop feeling guilty over her father's death. But today was not that day.

The dark woman wandered through the barren landscape, her steps slow and weary and absent-minded. She had no place to be, no aims or ambitions. She simply was, and she drifted like one of the burnt tumbleweeds that occassionally broke up the monotony of dark stillness she was wading through.