Bearclaw Valley and the space has been broken

when astara had been aventus' age, her favorite toy had been a toad.

once, shisu had taken the toad from her.

in return, astara had taken her daughter.

tit for tat. justice. divine and insensate irony. astara watched as her son came forth, ginger but game. she believed she might have detected pain in his eyes as he seized the creature and flung it, but it was soon replaced by mirth as the toad bounced roughly off of the stone and landed with a hapless squelch.

astara had always liked how toads made her tongue feel. she thumbed her teeth and lunged for the groggy creature, who only barely managed a halfhearted leap before he was seized in her jaws. astara had played with many toads in her life -- she knew them to be rather frail in constitution.

in short, their life expectancy once astara found them had always been abysmally brief.

it was her turn to pass the toad back. with her jaws freely drooling, astara placed the toad upon the ground and prodded it roughly with a paw. it leapt forward, indignant by the rude nudge to its bottom -- astara prodded again, this time lazily watching as it made a desperate (and dumb) dash for freedom -- right towards her son.