Wapun Meadow Slow, I'm getting up

Some wild part of her feared the bird might not remember, might not recognize her. 

Liri had lost much weight, the muscles she'd developed after losing her leg had been depleted by illness and hardship. She was a lean, rangy creature that looked half-starved. Sticky with blood and entirely missing her leg, the healer could only imagine how bedraggled she must look. 

But Ruenna's embrace is as bone-crushingly joyful as Liri's - the warm reunion of lost sisters. 

"I can't believe it. But when I arrived at the Creek..., " she can't bring herself to utter Kavik's name aloud as she steps back to speak, for the pain that closes her throat at the thought of him, "I thought I must have been confused when you didn't come."

"What happened? Where did everyone go?" She questions softly, as she never got the chance to with Kavik, wondering where the other members of her former pack were.