Phoenix Maplewood sweet adieu

last from me! thank you for your patience with my late replies <3

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The declaration of the desert rang with a pride Yvonne recognized, even if the landscape it described was alien to her. Verapaz. The word tasted of heat and dust, a sharp contrast to the glacier that haunted her own lineage. She regarded the flame-furred woman with a renewed, albeit cool, assessment. To be fearless was a dangerous thing, but to be polite in the face of a stranger’s bulk was a trait Yvonne could respect.
„It seems solitude is the rarest hunt of all,” Yvonne agreed, her voice smooth, answering the woman’s flicker of amusement with a dry, subtle arch of her brow. It was a quiet acknowledgement of the absurdity of the moment, three wanderers colliding in the vastness of the north.
Her pale gaze then slid back to the stone-hued male. He spoke of a pack, of warmth and meals, with the easy confidence of one who does not fear what the wind brings to his doorstep. The mention of rest tugged at the weariness hidden deep in her bones, though her face remained a mask of porcelain indifference. He offered hospitality to ghosts and strangers alike.
„East,” she repeated, the word falling like a pebble into a frozen pond. She looked in the direction he had indicated, measuring the mist and the distance.
She straightened, the last of the tension leaving her shoulders, though her posture remained upright and regal. „I am Yvonne,” she offered, a rare exchange of identity, though she withheld the weight of her history. „And if your 'Great Sky' values peace over blood, then I will keep your offer in mind. The road has been long, and the cold is not always kind to those who walk alone.”
She dipped her head, a gesture of diplomatic grace matching his own. „I thank you for the witness, and the open path.” With a final, lingering glance at the desert flame, a creature as misplaced here as she felt herself to be, Yvonne turned. She did not hurry; to rush was to admit fear, and she had none left to give to strangers today. Yvonne did not turn her nose east immediately, but the direction burned a quiet map in her mind. The glacier of her mother’s stories was a cold memory, but perhaps, just perhaps, this Great Sky offered a warmth she had not realized she was seeking. For now, however, the shadows of the pines reclaimed her, swallowing her pale form as if she were never there at all.