Horizon Ridge the lotus-eaters

For @Silvermane ! This is a fair ways away from NB, sorry. It seemed like a logical place for Basilie to be, since she started out in the Emberwood. Maybe Silvermane went herb-picking or something. x)

She left her darling brother and headed south, this time trailing away from his bloodied scent in the hopes that she'd encounter someone with knowledge of Hadrian. When she was met by a great wall of mountainous terrain, Basilie followed the natural corridor to the west until there was a break; the heavily wooded chasm between peaks served as her entryway in to the belly of the wilds. The trees gave her enough of a foothold so that she could scale the repetitive ridges, and through the long hours of the night, this is what she did. The diligent girl searched as she wandered - hoping for some sign of Hadrian, or at the very least, someone to give her some insight.

It would not be so easy. The night gave way to a crisp, cold day. Pale light slipped through the canopy, and the girl was in a wretched state of mind. Her attempts to find a route down to the plains from the cliff-side were fraught with disappointment; on more than one instance, she nearly lost her footing and went careening down the mountain. By midday she had been battered by the stoic trees which caught her in these trying times, and when the exhaustion of travel met the hunger of her empty belly, true hell threatened to break loose from within her.

When the trees finally began to thin out, Basilie breathed a great sigh of relief and chose to take a moment to collect herself. She was careful in her positioning - bracing herself against a copse of trees, the fur of her back catching upon the weather-worn bark - and looked out upon the distant plains with a renewed sense of purpose.