Totoka River to carry adolescent as an atlas

It isn’t long before the cold really settles and sinks through her fur, registering just how cold she is. She hadn’t planned what she was going to do once she’d gotten to the other side but here she stands with a stranger (but his features are young enough that she does not shy away). A little hunched up, she closes the distance again but she does not answer with anything more than a point of her nose across the river. Qilaq begins to shiver then, trembling all the way to her toes, and a beat later she takes a step back and shakes out her fur. Water flies every which way, perhaps even splashing her friend, but as she steadies herself once more, she closes the distance between them.