Bramblepoint clandestine meetings & longing stares

Watching the heavens gave Ibis an ache in her neck, but she wasn't ready to drop her stare just yet. She wasn't sure what she was looking for; there were plenty of trees blocking her view of the mountains but if she angled her attention a particular way, she could make out the shifting gray mass of clouds as they gathered and that - along with the sulfur smell in the air - worried her.

The approaching stranger wasn't so much ignored as overlooked; and when they spoke Ibis finally looked around herself to find the owner of the voice. At first she thought it was the ginger woman from her moonlight tryst and felt her face flush with warmth; her belly fluttered too, as if she had swallowed a little bird.

No, this wasn't Teya — this was a man. Distracted as she was by the goings-on overhead, Ibis failed to recognize a key factor of the stranger: they were a coyote, not a wolf. It was rare enough that she venture out of the fen, let alone meet a friendly face.

It was very bright, she said as a way to confirm with him. Yes, she'd seen it. I thought it was the sun rising, but it moved along the horizon rather than beyond it, and... well, the sun was up already. Yes, now that she thought about it, she'd left the fen in the very early morning and the flash had distracted her enough to lure her here.