Sequoia Coast give me no reprieve

for @caiaphas! set somewhere near to AS but not really idek

Some time ago, whether it were days or weeks, he had parted from his travelling companions. After some deliberation in their travels, they had come full circle to the coast. It had been there that Mordecai made his decision to follow it back south and broke from their sodality. For as much as he hated to depart the company he had been keeping, the time had come where their opinions differed. It wasn't the first time over the span of his travelling life and surely would not be the last.

Eventually the coast led him to the reverse side of familiar mountain ranges, though he did not initially recognize them for what they were. The mild air that had begun to chase winter was akin to petrichor; it may have rained across the coastline at some point, he couldn't have said. The sandy earth was damp and cool, though the air and the sun around him and at his back were warm. Perhaps the seasons were changing, that was the hope that he had; the tawny Ostrega welcomed the unearthing of spring, the return of longer days and warmer nights.

He paid little attention to the coast as he jogged along, only tarrying here or there when the necessity arose. Nothing overly familiar came in the way of scents, though he was keenly aware that he had crossed back into wilderness thick with canines not unlike himself. There were many of those little pockets scattered around, though the roads between them were few and far between.

murder by death — strange eyes