After her brief trip to the other side of the mountain, she had eventually returned to the wetlands to pass the days there. Hunting remained fruitful enough to keep her anchored, even while she considered the few packs that she had heard of so far. But she merely survived, not thrived by any means. It was just.. adequate.
It grew colder and colder by the day. The nights were long and lonesome. She had swiftly come to miss curling up with her mother as she had done in the last cold autumn she had known. Or, late in the winter and early in the cold mountain spring, when she had been able to wrap herself protectively around her younger sister and brother with their smaller bodies radiating a comforting heat..
She remembered it all with an ugly grimace. Even as the early morning's drizzle showed a few small traces of light, scarce snowflakes, she recalled the days past -- the bonds she had shared, now severed, and the lives she had loved so absolutely that their absence was still more of a wound than she led on. Perhaps Ame had not mourned as properly as she should have or had the time to do all she needed to do to finally heal from their untimely end.
And yet this was no time for that. She had to feed herself as the burning ache in her stomach so kindly reminded her suddenly. At least the drizzle was letting up significantly by now, so that was a very welcome change but she could not yet find any delight in this day. The dark female huffed and lowered her nose, searching and hoping for a trail to reveal itself to her, and yet, all she smelled were dried, dead flowers. Even this meadow seemed cold and unfriendly to her for reasons she could not yet place. She was too hungry and distracted to focus well enough on the lands themselves, not that she had been able to devote much time to that lately anyway.
Amekaze continued trekking further south across the open expanse of land with an easy jog and still, the trail was quiet and lonely.