Moonsong Glacier my fingers laced to crown,

@Zugzwang & @Slavik!
Setting GBW at pre-dawn, a few days before Rusalka v. Drageda
Summary After imparting her very self to an unlikely stranger of the sea, Aure begins the trek back to Dragoncrest - but finds herself entangled in the cat's cradle.

Fear.

It was the same fear she'd felt as a child, and then, with Rakk. It was a wild, rattling thing within her; and remembering what-in-heavens'-name was behind her, her terror became a thrashing creature, almost as tangible and alive as herself and her erratic heart.

Aure had never seen a lion before; save except one time, as a whelp. Through the bleary tears of fervor pricking at her eyes and hushed by the wind, she could almost set the memory before her: huddled into her mothers' flank, worrying at his thick, northern coat in her jaws as they lie, almost as death does, for that great, skulking feline to prowl away -- she'd hope for forever, at that time.

This morning was no different, at least, where this chittering diavol was concerned. But the constellations pushed through her glaze of nearly-thoughtless fright. They hissed at her, airy and tiny and so achingly far away; took hold of her petrified soul, governing and raucous, and left her no other entreaty than to head south. So she went.

Almost in flight, how fleetly her coltish legs flurried, she was as sudden as snow; her wispy coat billowed away from her, bending to the lashing winds she seared through. Nothing more the corner of ones eye than a trick; just a wraith of winter, once more fleeing from a creature out of some abysmal hell.

Streaking through Chimera Fields at full force, she saw - (barely) - more than she felt the great, golden mass of WHAT?! she slammed into; heels over head and sprawling and all.