Larksong Grotto You pray it all away but it continues to grow

Kasatka had no way of knowing this, but she'd inherited her father's insatiable need for travel. And although her main reason for departing once again from her natal family was searching out Aditya, she could not deny that ranging the open wilderness on her own held great appeal to the young girl. After all, she had still yet to experience true evil or true hunger. She thought that, having survived her father's death and the fire that had ravaged the plains of her birth, she was wise to the cruelty of the world.

She did not know that her own sorrows hardly scratched the surface, and she was happier for it. But it left her vulnerable, and ignorant to that fact.

As it was, the tawny eight-month-old traipsed happily through the taiga, ranging high peaks and invading deep valleys with high-spirited determination. The purpose of her ranging did make her sad, at times, but Kasatka was a soul unable to be repressed by her sorrows. She felt them, and felt them deeply, but the thrill of being alive was enough to keep her trucking on.

But it would not protect her from danger. Kasatka knew this - or thought she did - but somehow the knowledge did not keep her from approaching the pale wolf as soon as she saw him, tail swaying merrily at her hocks. Hi, she called out, scrabbling down one of the grotto's walls. You're the first wolf I've seen for a week or more! Her tone suggested that she was very pleased to see him. One might even wonder if she'd mistaken him as an old friend, for the undeniable warmth in her voice.