Mount Apikuni abracadabra

@Andraste  

It had been a long time.

She had headed north, spent time here and there in different places, settling for a little while but never permanently, endlessly wandering. She had wanted to escape her life in Swiftcurrent Creek- and escape she did for many years. The time away had done her well; in a place with unfamiliar faces, she had no excuses to relive trauma. The only constant reminders of her period as a captive were the faded mark on her forehead and the deeply carven scar in her shoulder. She tried to ignore them. Eventually she had gotten over her feelings of depression around age three... at four, she had a short fling with a lover... at five she left her pack and wandered on her own once again. And now she was six, and she had thought long and hard before making the return to the Teekon Wilds down south. Of course, her mind wandered like her feet, curious as to what had become of her old home. Were the people she once knew still here? The same packs? Would anyone recognize her? She shook the thoughts away, deciding they were probably all gone. It would certainly break her heart to learn that Blackfeather Woods was still thriving and Swiftcurrent Creek was no more. 

She had re-entered the Wilds near her old home. Her eyes wandered down the slope of the mountain, down towards the creek she once called home. It looks the same. But it feels different. Maybe because of all the time that's passed. She averted her eyes uncomfortably as if she had been caught snooping. Instead she continued up the mountain, trying not to let nostalgia overwhelm her with emotion. Each step felt like a mile in this place- and not because she was old. But still she continued up the rocky slope, the muscles in her skin shifting visibly even through her thick plush coat. Star was aimless, without destination, unsure if she was even going to stay in this land. Perhaps she was waiting for a reason to stay.

The passage of morning; pastel and muted, and then filled with chorale birds. She watches it — has watched the dawning for each of her whole lives, like it was something she was meant to do without even being told — as shafts cascade throughout the rockfelled hinter, careless but for the behemoth beneath the Wilds. The very creature at the helm for all the earthshatter had near fallen into slumber; the shiverings of soil had become only further and few in between. There had not been much to be affrighted of  (save the hungering of her people)  and so the fée bared waxen throat to the last of harvest sunwarmth.

Indeed she had returned to the Emberwood, as she had told the cloudgiant and his shying kith; indeed, too, had she foraged all that she could, had toted bushel upon bushel to the makeshift stores of the Court; and yet she had returned, too, to this very same mountain, if only to look upon another’s sundered spine  (as she might never look upon her own).

Musculature hummed with the delightful exertion of laboring away; and when her gaze unveiled from such heady dozing, the muted, half-numbed eyes alit now upon a wisping and wizened wanderer, traipsing not at all too far away. A most curious print between those brows— “Have you a resting place, for ze coming winters?”

As her eyes surveyed her surroundings, she noticed the figure. A girl who, like Star herself, had glistening white fur. And an interesting arrangement of scars- she thought that from here, she could partially see marks traveling down her back. It was like no scar she had ever seen before; she wasn't even sure what could've caused a mark like that and naturally she felt curious. Star had her own set of strange scars and markings after her time as a captive, but they seemed tame in comparison.

Just as soon as Star had noticed the girl, her voice broke the air, intriguing and accented: “Have you a resting place, for ze coming winters?” Star thought for just a moment before making eye contact again with the girl. She seemed good-natured enough, and so the woman responded: "Not any place I know of. As of now I am traveling," she explained. The lack of usual prey in this area had not gone unnoticed by Star, and she figured the upcoming winter would be a tough time in the Wilds. It didn't seem like a bad idea to find a home here again, but given her history and values, she was not ready to settle with just any pack. Until she found a suitable place, she would live alone, even if it meant toughing out the winter.

last from me <3

Though three seasons younger than the argent before her, the fée reckons that with the coming winters  (earthshiver since gone, thankfully)  it is far more fortunate to throw in one's labors alongside the many, rather upon their lonesome. And in her mind's musings, she has risen, and soon nears the greying wanderer; speaking as she oft has of her Court in the midnorth.

All that is left, then, is if Star would return to that very place with her on this day.

As the younger woman spoke, of her Court, Star considered it. She had no where to stay for now, and with an ongoing famine alongside winter's approach, it seemed that joining a group would be a better idea. If only for the winter, or if for the rest of her life? She would not know until she spent some time there. But soon enough, Star was nodding at Andraste's words, eventually committing herself to this forming pack, located in Northstar Vale. That touched her heart too, to finally live in the mountains again. It was where she belonged, and so she felt eager to move in to her new home.