Totoka River have faith in yourself.

backdated to before @Skaigona reaches WGI; set just before the landbridge

it is with a mix of emotions carried sharply in her throat that pakasqa — once-ava — stares at the wraith about to cross the bridge.

it is her mother, and yet like pakasqa and her not-ava identity, this one is something different.

the scent is the same and the skin is the same and the red along her back is the same but truthfully were those her eyes or the eyes of some other order peering out into that endless cold shore? was it her soul inhabiting those bare bones or was it something other?

pakasqa had followed her burning scent from the flatlands and known there was something else secreted between each fevered press of a paw to loam.

she follows, but makes no sound as the waves lash against the stony coast. she knows in a way that cannot be spoken, that if she sees her mother ford the numbing water here it will be her last crossing.

bracing against the nipping wind, the girl once known as ava lends her voice to the squall — a small, inquisitive noise filled with concern for the woman, now a husk, that had once been this girl’s mother.