Phoenix Maplewood maybe I can drown

for @Wintersbane <3

By the time the willow's poisonous effects had faded, leaving the buttered shepherd shaking and weak, Imaq would find herself far removed from the reaches of the Woods -- from the steppes of the Flatlands in general. Unfamiliar with the terrain, and not entirely able to recount the journey that led her here, the piebald took to wandering the Taiga aimlessly. A weary sort of acceptance settled itself into the marrow of her bones, accustomed to the life of a gypsy by this age. At the very least, the landscape was something like the north's though still milder than Nunaat -- particularly beautiful in winter, if harsh and unforgiving. 

The straight stands of white cedars, speckled with black splotches not unlike the halfbreed's own blotchy skin, stood as neat sentinels -- interspersed with the broader and gnarled trunks of maples and oaks. One such tree drew forth the medicine woman with an excited wiggle of her tailless stump, the fluffy wolfdog rising up on her hindlegs to balance her ivory paws against the tree of her choosing. 

Her incisors scraped carefully at the ice for a moment and then  she took to rasping at the bark with her spotty tongue -- licking up the sap-like syrup that flowed out of the bark in sticky rivulets. It was not the most nutritional thing in the world but it was sweet and it would tide her over until the tiny huntress managed to catch something more fufilling.