Big Salmon Lake Why are you hanging on so tight

She rarely left the mountain these days. It wasn’t fear that kept Tiuttuk home but a strange sense of dread. What if she left, just for a few hours, and returned to find it empty? Or what if a stranger slipped over their borders and pillaged their village while she was away? Pie knew these weren’t exactly rational fears, yet all the same, it took a lot of inner coaxing to get her feet to carry her away from the mount.

She just needed a short reprieve, so she didn’t go far. She threaded through the bottleneck where Bramblepoint met Firefly Glen and approached the lake over yonder. Tiuttuk immediately spotted the stranger seated on the shore, washing what looked like a fox’s pelt. The sight made her think of her anaa, her chest tightening. She made a small noise to announce her presence and slipped closer.

Greetings, she said quietly into the frosty morning air.