Shadow Mountain beyond the point of no return

He had been on-edge ever since their arrival here, so when Maegi asked him to go somewhere with her, he obliged. More than that, he was happy to get away from the foreign smells and strange bodies; and she was leading him along the mountain range towards an area that didn't smell so strongly like Diaspora, immediately easing some of his nerves. He carried himself with a loftier air the further they got from the pack's claim; while Titmouse didn't have any issue with the people or the pack deep down, he disliked change and couldn't help but be cautious. Life had a way of blowing up around him if he wasn't careful.

Along the way Titmouse kept turning to observe the surroundings. Everything here looked the same; the mountainous terrain was heavily forested or balding and mottled in grey, even with the snow that fell around them. Moss clung to every surface and was frozen like a red carpet, dead and withered, crunching underfoot. While the young man knew some of Maegi's history he didn't know everything and his mind was elsewhere—so he did not see the connection of this mountainside to his beloved, although truthfully he didn't try to make any connections.

When he'd glimpse her face, he'd see it: pain, or rather, some kind of acute agony which lingered in the eyes. As she glanced back to him he tried to smile to her, but after the recent loss of their home... It didn't look or feel legitimate. He tried to close the distance and comfort her with a touch of his snout, but she was already moving again—reeking of fear, of all things. What was going on?