Phoenix Maplewood on a cobweb afternoon

tagging @Aviana but AW

Sunlight filters through the trees, dappling the woman's tattered coat and setting the fiery hue aglow as she halts at the edge of the forest. She inhales slowly, taking in the scent of the borders, and almost turns away. The worn fragments of her mind still shudder and wail at the prospect of ending her isolation — has she even earned such a reward, yet? But...
Winter lingers just around the bend, creeping quickly up on the land even as autumn settles her golden tendrils around it. The idea of dying does not scare her; she imagines someone finding her body, frozen or starved or overwhelmed by some other predator, and her own indifference to the idea disturbs her. She doesn't quite know what prompts her to linger near the pack's borders, tipping her head back to howl for whichever wolf would call themself the leader of this place. But, she supposes, all her best decisions have been made on a whim — it is when she puts thought into things that she regrets them.