Bramblepoint Pull together for the clan and kin.

Exactly one month after arriving, Towhee left the pass. She did it without fanfare, without even telling anyone. She’d told Bushtit her plan during their most recent rendezvous and trusted him to inform @Soto when he had the chance. But as far as she figured, they owed one another nothing. And she knew nobody else would even care.

She took her time navigating northward again, stopping to fetch a drink from Serpent Lake and rest on its shore for a bit. Towhee then crossed the steppes, her step even slower as she warily eyed every inch of the sand for snakes. They must’ve been hibernating, though. She reached the prairie beyond without incident, the last stretch of dry grass standing between her and her final destination.

By the time she walked beneath the sparse boughs of Bramblepoint, Towhee’s leg ached worse than it had in recent memory. She dropped to her haunches in between an alder and an apple tree, shifting when she realized she’d sat right on a rotten apple. Towhee sighed and stretched out her leg beside the piece of smushed fruit, easing the rest of her body down onto the cold earth.