Grouse Thicket come on trace the globe and shake your pants

huddled deep into the thicket, val sang to himself quietly in a voice shaky with fear.

the bear had turned from his trail nearly two days past, but valravn still could not sleep.

he was cold. he was alone. he was lost. he didn't recognize anything about where he was. he was terrified to back-track where he had come, because the bear's scent was still heavy in the vicinity and even a boy like he knew he'd only just managed to narrowly escape certain death.

turning back was a fool's errand and valravn knew it.

that the bear was the very bear that had driven his mother -- his true mother -- from the halls of ankyra was entirely lost on young valravn. fate had a way of playing with fools, and he no exception. he shivered as the temperature dropped, at last feeling fatigue and desperation sink deep into him;

tucked under the sparse cover of sagebrush, valravn sang - his voice spilling in synchronicity with the local chirruping of a lively warbler.