Ouroboros Spine pale moonlight

Angel Oak is heading off! She does not yet know that she won't be back for a long while, but that is my plan for her. Tagging @Arrluk & @Ajei for reference, but she is seeking out @Raindrop. All others are welcome to join and say goodbye. She will come back for visits, at the very least.

The herds were moving again. Not all of them, but the one that Angel Oak had paid special attention to, certainly. She felt a pang of loss as she watched the last one trickle over the hill and out of sight. She was already far from home, and the herd had been going further and further each day...

She wrote it off as a loss, but in her heart, the seed of a plan began to grow.

"I'm heading out," she said to her mother, hours and hours later. She was still a little breathless from trotting the last mile home. "The herd I've been watching is moving, and I want to see where they go."

She flitted around their small den, gathering things she wanted to take with her. Trinkets, mainly. Things she could trade. A few dried snacks that her mother always seemed to have prepared.

"I'll be gone probably about as long as last time," she said, tossing the last of what she wanted to pack onto her carrying pelt. She turned to her mother, eyes smiling despite the troubled look on her face. "But I'll come back in time for..."

They couldn't really know if the pregnancy had taken just yet. Angel blushed under her fur and let the matter lie.

"Rosa and Val will take good care of you," she said instead. "And Ludo, too. I'm sorry, momma — I know I just got back, but I want to see this through."