Northstar Vale NSV CLAIM: we owe this to ourselves!

Dawa had spent the night squirreled away, as she often did, amongst a strange terrain. The mountains afforded her some fortitude, but it was the dark trees that lend a saving grace; hiding the small canine from sight, as the Dragon prowled. She was not afraid of Raheerah, though she had many reasons to be - she was not even afraid of the strange scents within this secret vale, or the fact that Tenzin was away from her; nothing spooked her. Nothing ever could. Even when the great black beast's call rose to her ears, sliding like oil across the territory and in to every corner, the cleric did not feel frightened. If anything she was emboldened, despite the silence in her heart. The signal had been clear - this place was safe. It would remain safe for as long as Raheerah kept his word.

So, the nimble-bodied creature lifted to her crooked paws, and began to make her way out of the darkness. It was slow going, of course. She felt her way along with tender paws, cracked from prior days of travel, and slunk with her head low. It was not the way an Alpha should walk. If anything, Dawa looked like the ultimate Omega; the crook in her tail being the only raised portion, although it was not by choice. There was smooth against her paws; then there was crunch; rock, forest, underbrush, a great mix of things that Dawa traversed with careful steps. She sought out the scent of Raheerah even though her instincts told her not to - that he was an enemy because of what he had done to her. Midway through Dawa's agonzingly slow trek, there came a new voice. It was distant and it was strange. Bright, airy, and masculine.

It wasn't Tenzin, Dawa thought with a lift of her nose, hoping with a wiggle of her snout that she would smell the stranger. She was met with the scent of the vale. This prompted her to lower her head again and continue snaking her way towards the heaving breaths of the Dragon. A second voice burst forth from afar - somewhere on the edge, where the mountains met paradise - but this new sound did not make her pause. If strangers were interested in their home, they would be welcome. It was the purpose of paradise.

She stumbled, tripping on something hard and narrow; it cracked and infused the air with woody smells, and Dawa crinkled her snout - there was a steady and familiar musk, which was her target. The black mass was unseen but Dawa reached for it with swift, if a little jagged, steps. With her head lifted slightly she caught her nose against the man's ankle. She felt Raheerah's coat give beneath the drag of her muzzle, and the feeling continued as she drifted along his hip - feeling a twinge of pain grab at her cheek and roll down her neck, in to her shoulder just as she removed her touch from the beast. He was here, and now so was she - unaware of the strangers around her, but fully aware of the sharp sensations heating her skin.

"Raheerah," Dawa called out the name of the Dragon with a clinical certainty, as she descended her rear in to the soil. Confirming that it was indeed him, and not some imposter - not that anyone would ever be foolish enough to impersonate the dangerous creature. "Tenzin?" She called out next, with a blink of her milky eyes. The urge to cry out and howl was not something Dawa contained, but she would consider singing with her packmates once they were all gathered.