Silvertip Mountain everything is gorgeous once it's gone

i am SO sorry i never saw this. i just realized i had a bunch of tag PMs yesterday :(

there was new independence in her children, and for astara that solitude was much needed. she was different now than she had been her first whelping; she loved these two no less, yet her helicoptering days were over.

instead astara caught snatches of sleep here and there while her children roved the endless troves of stone and grass. today, she had woken to find asperas' scent dwindling -- trailing after it in an unhurried fashion quite unlike her (for one never knew these days how long her stamina might last her), astara slowed as asperas drew into vision.

her unchild (perhaps even her magnum opus, though she did not yet know it) held between needleteeth a prize of blood; perhaps even, the first of many kills in asperas' long and chilling life earthside. astara drew close with a low wag of her tail, head ever so slightly askance in quizzical interest.