Kintla Flatlands For just as Every Seed holds the Power

The sense of kinship she'd felt so immediately with Sumac was not quite as present here, but the blackbear was charmed all the same by similarly timid but friendly dispositions. She drew nearer, likewise sniffing to find out what she could about this young stranger, and the most striking thing she found was that the woman was alone.

Beneath the same tree, Easy sat to survey the flatlands from the same vantage point. She'd grown up in this area, and had often surveyed it from Blacktail Deer Plateau as a girl. From below, and now covered in snow, it seemed so much larger.

"In my family, they call this time of year breathe deep," she said, her tone contemplative. She pulled in a long breath of frigid air and let it out with a quiet, ah! "It's a time of rest and communion, after working hard and fattening up all through the autumn."

She turned her orange gaze back on the stranger, her expression warm and curious.

"But you are far from home, aren't you?" she said softly.