Emberflame Ridge You carry my fears as the heavens set fire

She fell.

A descent into the darkness deep down the slope of the mountain. 

Nutuyikruk had gotten so close to the peak, climbing one foot after the other with the call of Muskrat's distant voice urging her on. It was distant, vacant, even, but the shadow girl charged forward. Higher, closer, reaching for the top, and there came a moment in the beautiful glory of the climb that a mistake happened. Mindless, focused only upwards, scaling the overhead spikes of stone with nimble legs.

It took a single slip.

She'd not known what it was like to experience a horror so great that it did not have time to surface on her smiling face. The girl did not scream, staring at the peak growing ever smaller. An alpinist's dream that was ripped away before a dreaming girl's very eyes. 

The sun passed many times. The first held no feeling. Numb down the neck, and legs that could not move. There was no greater shame than asking for help.

Time next had been slow. Hunger grew a cruel reminder of the simple nature that was survival. No more visions. No more hopes. Hope became waiting for the owl overhead to drop its prey in the nights. It's great wingspan casted a feathered shadow when the moonlight filtered in between the clouds and trees. Snow had accumulated atop her fur. One day, she could twitch her paw. The next, a leg. All four. Stronger became her neck.

Until she could walk, and she walked-- calling for Muskrat. Who never came. Soon, Nutuyikruk was tired of being the one found. 

But soon days turned into weeks, then near months.
She didn't know how long it had been.

But she was back now, searching for the only place she'd ever gotten to truly call home. Without mother.

She did not know she wouldn't find it.