Morningside Cuesta the music's too loud

She woke to a pounding headache and bloody nose. Groaning, Haunt pushed herself onto all fours and sought out the nearest puddle to wash the crust from her nostrils and the stain on her foreleg where her snout had rested. She took a drink for good measure and the aching subsided, a little. With a twitch of her tail and a snort, the youth set off into the bypass to greet the day.

When she made a pass along the eastern border and saw a speck in the distance, back-lit by the sunrise, Haunt stopped. The glare made pain pulse through her temples. Apropos of nothing, she recalled a dream the night before. She and Artemis had hunted a fawn in a meadow just like this one, golden with summer sunlight. She blinked and breathed, moving forward toward the distant shape.

As she sidled up beside Vex and gave him a friendly bump with her muzzle, she noted the crisp, dead grass underfoot. Despite the headache that called back to her injury some weeks ago, she murmured, "I'm ready to make a plan, whenever you are." As she spoke, she glanced back over her shoulder toward the bypass, imagining Arbiter's eyes on them.