Redtail Rise the landscape garden

for @Mori!

it's this gently sloping part of the Rise that worries her most. trees and rocks and towering mountains shield more than half of their claim, and even the less ragged borders still present challenges. but here, this strip of land that oozes into the surrounding taiga. . .

Avicus has urinated here frequently, hardly leaving an inch for doubt. she's doing so today, or at least as much as she can, alternating between furious trickles and stalking hares.

she takes a breather, standing tall beside a lone, barren cedar, its late-evening shadow casting her into darkness.

their numbers are swelling, but not enough to protect this stretch from whatever—whoever—awaited them beyond.