Nocturne Summit ikuallaaktuk ⩛

he'd departed shortly after that first quake, the image of violent white light burned permanently in his mind. he told but the one -- @Wraen -- that he was leaving, and he was off into the bitter winter night in quickly departing footsteps.

as he drew closer to his birthplace stone-smoke and dust roiled out from the peaks, settling around his shoulders in ashy mist. along the pearly snow were blasts of grey and red and dirt -- lending the snowcover a surreal shade of redstone arcturus could scarcely reconcile.

his eyes were trained on the distant peaks still when a scream lifted into the air. arcturus froze, a chill sent down his spine -- his family was ahead but that noise could not be ignored. what if it was his brothers, or sisters?

with a hardened lump in his throat and his eyes burning from the fumes of sulfur and melted stone arcturus pressed on until he came across a shape in the dirt-covered snow. she looked to him like a revenant, some half-dead thing pulled from clay and resurrected -- and yet he knew instantly her identity.

"kukutux!" arcturus bellowed as he pulled towards her, eyes scouring her brow-beaten frame. the split along her cheeks, the blood on her paws -- the ash-ruined condition of her pelt. what had happened, why was she here, and where was the rest of the spear?