Broken Antler Fen We cannot alter our fate, but we can rise to meet it.

Quote from "Princess Mononoke". I think that the description of the territory fits nicely with the imagery of the forest from this particular Studio Ghibli movie. @Maia

It had taken a little longer for Wraen to get back on her feet and be fit for scouting than she had anticipated. Under Eljay's care her fever had lifted and some of the worst cough no longer plagued her, but some weakness had remained. She grew tired easily and had to stop to catch her breath more often. These signs were all too similar to those she had suffered from earlier in the autumn, right after the hornet attack. Which meant that just maybe her health issues were not isolated to single and independent cases, but had a common underlying cause.

Yet she was a stubborn creature that refused to believe that there was something wrong with her and that it may be a permanent change rather than a temporary one. So, when the day came for her and Maia to go on the adventure called "Let's find that magic forest", she kept up a brave face, was cheerful and excited and masked her own need to rest with care and attention her sibling's healing wounds required. Finding a place to live - one that they actually liked and, which was also practical and could provide for them - was a more difficult task than they had imagined initially and this effectively drew Wraen's focus from her own health to the job they needed to get done.

They purposefully avoided the place Maia had been attacked in and explored first lands east to caldera, then west. The search with pauses inbetween had lasted for few days now and still they had not come up with anything of good use. Wraen had grown a little hopeless and desperate as well, having that sinking feeling in her stomach that eventually she would have to leave Maia at the caldera to live out that happily ever after with Eljay, while she... well, Frosthawks and that flea-tick-heartworm-medicine pack were options to overwinter. "I don't know, Maia," she told her, when they had finally stopped at, what appeared to be a swamp, and she sat down to chew out the snow-ice mix packed between her pawpads. "I suppose we may have been too hasty in promising everyone we will settle nearby."