Silver Creek red sky in morning

There was something riveting about being somewhere new and unfamiliar. She was unrecognizable, her face unknown, her past unable to follow along to nip at her heels. It was like a rebirth, to step away from the valley she was born in and begin anew.

The journey had been a difficult one, of course. While Mauti was certainly more used to maneuvering with only three limbs, that didn't make her anything close to normal. She knew she would never return to that state, either — but had she ever been normal to begin with? She certainly didn't think so.

But maybe that was what had driven her to live.

She'd hobbled along at Ole's side for what felt like weeks, but he'd been kind enough to go slow. So she didn't immediately drop when he offered to stop; instead, she glanced to him, a small grin pulling at the corners of her lips. "Let's keep walking," she suggested. It wasn't too late in the day yet, and she was interested to see what the river could offer them a little ways down. She gestured with her nose towards the woods some distance off, "We could explore that?"