Sunbeam Lair already choking on my pride

Apologies, I am a bit rusty. For Andraste + anyone else who wants to join!

It wasn’t usual for the young wolf to travel during the daylight hours, but she was desperate. Isolde had told herself that she had to keep moving, no matter how sore and tired her paws grew or how high the sun rose in the early morning sky.

The female had travelled many miles over the past few weeks in search of somewhere new to call home, but so far every time she thought she’d stumbled upon the perfect location to settle down, something had spooked her, causing her to abandon her haunt in search for the next best alternative further over the horizon. Now though, after days of little sleep, Isolde was simply in search of somewhere which felt safe enough to rest her head for a few hours.

She had so far managed to avoid stumbling into any of the wolves belonging to the pack which claimed the most eastern mountain peaks. The pack smelt large, with many scents intermingling in the air, creating a stench which was admittedly very intimidating to the lone yearling. She had made sure to give their territory a wide birth, for fear that she would be chased down and killed if she dared to wander too close.

The scrawny female had continued westward, heading for the next mountain peak as the orange and pink streaks from the recent sunrise faded from the pale winter sky. As she moved alongside a rising cliff edge, her golden-amber eyes scanned the rock for any openings, hoping for a small indent in the mountain stone to curl herself up in for the remainder of the day. What she found was something far better. A cave had formed itself in the side of the mountain, one which she immediately advanced towards, albeit cautiously.

Bright eyes scanned the gloomy darkness as her muddied paws tentatively stepped inside, her heart fluttering anxiously inside her chest as she sniffed the crisp air for scents of the cave’s previous or current occupier.