Blacktail Deer Plateau My sister should be living here but is not.

She descended the mountain, oblivious to the man in the valley below who had offered his voice to her. The only sound that filled the ghost came from the blizzarding wind, her flesh and marrow numbed by the cold. What had she expected to find here? Memories, yes - but more than that. Memories in themselves were not enough.

The snow eased once she reached the lower slopes. Only the wind struck her now, and panting through the pain, she stopped, closed her eyes, and leaned against the rock for respite. A familiar burn spread over her chest where the coyotes had dealt the severity of their blows, and she groaned. Beneath her skin, her heart turned with a similar ache. There was something too familiar here, and she grasped for understanding again.

But when she didn't find what she reached for, she gathered herself and continued down the mountain, slow in some places, stopping in others, until the sun sank well into the other side of the sky. Finally, the ground leveled out, and the leviathan sighed and stared groundward, until her legs grew steady and the pine needles stopped their spinning. Only then did she lift her head to gaze over the thick forest she had found.

And then she remembered.

A trickle of thoughts, and dim memories - looking for her sister, the glint of cattish eyes, a strong and familiar embrace. Ciervo. The overwhelming sense of fear and saddness, followed by the gentlest reassurance that she would be okay. That she was forgiven. That he would never leave her, like she had left so many before. The softness of the face she searched for.

And she understood.

--

Her rescuers had bid her in a general direction, and Muse had followed their prompts and then some. Over rocky mountains and loamy shores, walking and wandering for what felt like ages, finding traces of millions but none of the one for whom she searched.

But the forest changed that.

The beginning of a heavy fog filtered through the leaves around her, and nothing but a moist chill met her scanning nose when she sucked in the sharp evening air. Yet she would find something through these woods, she believed that. She didn't know what, but she had something now, and a light sparked through her shadowed face. Hope, and Muse plunged through the trees and allowed the dark to envelop her. And this time, her paws remembered the way.