Otter Creek it was alright just to be alive

all welcome, tag 4 reference<3<3

it's late when they finally make it past the mountains. okeanos is slowly realizing his imagined scale of the teekons was much, much too small. the journey from bracken sanctuary to elysium as a child had seemed impossibly long, but even that was nothing, because the mountains hid a whole new world away from them, one that seems to go on forever. for the first time since leaving, okeanos feels a little overwhelmed by his quest. he has no idea what direction mali's gone in, no way of tracking that.. well, beyond finding other wolves and asking about it, he supposes.

and there are other wolves. he can smell them, their paths, old and new, though he hasn't seen any yet (besides tristan, and he doesnt wanna think about that). well... no use getting discouraged. "we should rest," he tells @Ibis, coming to stop beside the creek and drink. there's a lot of fish here, which is good for food -- and overhead, the stars are beginning to twinkle. he feels a twinge of regret for not asking his dad about the stars while he visited, but there's nothing he can do about it now. instead he wanders a little bit until he can find a good vantage point and settles, trying to remember what his mom and dad have told him about the little pinpricks of light above.