Journey

Yep!

A brief stand off served as their prologue, though Ptarmigan relented any authority with ease long before it became uncomfortable. Tuwawi seemed to regard her with a level of suspicion, telling even from afar. Although affronted by the apparent doubt, the Endore knew she couldn't blame a stranger. It wasn't like she had done anything miraculous to earn brownie points, after all. They had never met, and on more than one occasion, she had shown the same face to others herself.

Tuwawi gave voice to her confusion, prompting Ptarmigan to lift her lips in a mysterious smile. “I'm not sure that I am leaving,” she admitted, shifting her feet slightly and glancing back over her shoulder as though looking for a reason to stay, “but it seems like I'm not staying right now.”

Despite its riddle-esque quality, Ptarmigan's response wasn't intended to be snarky. Rather, it was sincere, revealing that she really didn't know where she was going with her life. Would she keep walking into those distant mountains, only to disappear as she had done half a dozen times before? Would Tuwawi do the same? Or would each of them in time turn back, seeking the familiar sights and smells they had come to know in the Wilds? She didn't have the answers to these questions.

“I didn't know the Wilds stretched this far north,” she eventually admitted as some sort of in-between explanation for her previous question.