Totoka River You just don't know it yet,

runa learned to roam the land, bit by bit.

she did not like it.

she liked the sea, and to swim, and to be near the weightlessness there. it helped her to think. it was quiet, in its way, and raging too, sometimes. the sea was a thing runa felt she understood.

but the sea had inroads. there was a vein reaching in to the earth which runa had found, and she followed, never straying too far. the lovely stench of rotten seaweed and gull's feathers clung to her, but otherwise the scents around her shifted, clarifying, sharpening in a way she found overwhelming.

there was also the scent of a person. as runa took notice of this, she stopped and lingered along the river's edge—tempted to turn tail, immediately.