Moonspear inca mummy girl

I took some liberties with the location and time of day.  Hope you don't mind Te!

True to her word, Tehama had worked for a fortnight to show her worth to the pack, trying to earn her room and board.  She spent her days roaming the great keep that was Moonspear, integrating her scent with that of the rest of the pack on the borders, learning the many trails worn into the land from wolvish paws.  She worked to add to their caches, the most important task of any orderly packland in the autumn, as winter drew ever nearer.  Some days, she was successful; her efforts had yielded rodents, fowl, and hares, and she'd been able to chase a fox away from the remnants of an ungulate's hind leg that was still in relatively good condition.  Most days, however, had left her empty-handed yet suffused with the pleasure that came from exploring her new alpine residence.

She'd yet to settle herself down in a particular den, choosing instead to sleep in the open where she could survey the stars and moonlit landscape from Moonspear's middle heights.  This particular campsite, however, had been too close to home for a family of porcupines.  Even a run in with the irate mama porcupine had done little to diminish her enthusiasm for the mountain she now called home, though it had left her with a shallow wound to her right shoulder.  Giving the prickly oversized rodents a wide berth, Te decided to move along as the morning light shifted to midday.  The burnished bronze of the trees gave the woods a lovely glow as the woman headed in the direction of a creek she was fairly sure she recalled in these parts, and she couldn't bring herself to be miserable even though her shoulder stung in the cold air.

So it was in an entirely brighter mood than was really accountable that the lady slowed to take a look at a child, half-heartedly picking at some small morsel of fur and flesh.  Te thought of the pups she'd fondly looked after at this age, and a pang that wasn't from her wound crossed her.  Her younger half-siblings would be maybe this age now, caught between childhood and adolescence.  A bittersweet smile flickered across her lips as she gazed at the pale figure with bright eyes from her vantage point on the trail, some meters away.  Impulsively, for she wasn't sure yet what she'd say to a stranger-child, Te chuffed a low greeting.  It would be easy enough to rebuff, if the youth wasn't interested in engaging, and the lady would continue on her way.