Porcupine Ridge x ilukutak

✹☾❂

Eleuthera smiled to herself, letting the relief of simply knowing her next step wash away any lingering anxieties of spending a winter alone. It would have been her first, and she wasn’t much made for being by her lonesome. Kigipigak did not offer a firm promise — that power seemed to lie with his brothers alone — but he offered an opportunity. He was a passing of the proverbial baton, which Eleuthera was eager to receive. She glanced in the direction of the watch, and the forest that lay just below it. She knew exactly where it was. Their domain was, quite literally, right next door.

The large, pale brute drew her attention with a question. “The valley to the south?” she clarified idly. Then, Eleuthera remembered abruptly — in her recent survey of the mountain range, she had ascertained from afar that the empire had too moved on, or moved apart. “There use to be an entire empire there,” she said, letting the twist of her lips be the only semblance of sadness she had about that. It seemed that her sister, Ibis, has slipped right between her paws again. “but I haven’t smelt them on the wind in quite some time.”

These things happened, and Eleuthera had easily come to terms with it. What was meant for her, would find her. What wasn't, would simply fall away. Case and point: the path that was currently unfolding. The lilac woman rolled her shoulders, passing Kigipigak a knowing, somewhat sardonic, grin. “In the wake of so many fallen,” she said, “It is fortunate to come across those breathing life back into these mountains.”