Firestone Hot Springs Before we ever were afraid of the unknown

She'd trailed hugging the mountains for some time, unsure of what to do next. Mom and Dad were gone. Prevost and Peregrine, long gone. And now, Vesper, too, had vanished. She was alone, and so she stuck to the only solid figure upon the landscape—the range, the snow-capped crags that seemed the rocky end of the earth.

Exhausted after a few days travel, Blueberry had sought to turn back when she caught a whiff of a familiar scent nearby. Not Vesper, but. . . 

Her heart began to race as she pictured handsome Bronco in her mind's eye, and she hustled forward, chasing each molecule with alacrity. A scent joined by another—oh, the name was on the tip of her tongue—

F. . . Fennec? she guessed aloud, suddenly coming upon the tawny woman among the steam. She wasn't sure of the name, but— What're you— where's Bronco? Her mind was heavily upon the man, but she did spare a passing thought for this wolf as well, and she stared down Fennec with no little intensity.

There was something. . .different about her, but Blueberry could not grasp as to what.