Mount Apikuni one: entrance

Steals!!

Thoughts inevitably return to her sister no matter how hard she tries to put her aside; the need to fill her belly is much more dire and yet, Rheia just wants to be back with Sif so badly. She decides to investigate the marsh due south of her resting place — hardly keen on leaving her precious hollow (a temporary home she has already grown quite fond of) within the pine forest. The marshland is not so damp that she cannot cross it although, it holds odd smells which make her contemplate turning tail. Before long Rheia is through the worst of it — she has managed to navigate across the more solid and frozen segments of the wetlands and comes to rest along a natural cairn jutting from the earth.

Some casual glances tell her that there are many paths to follow. That perhaps if she headed towards the mountains she would find ease in travel, a familiarity upon the stonescape of the ridge. Rheia shelters for a handful of minutes within a forest void of color; she does not know that the trees sport brilliant reds and golds at any other time of the year and merely deems this another patch of nothingness, which she is eager to forget. It is here, within the Emberwood, that she finds her first chance at a meal. The scent of hare is new to her but it ilicits a hasty response: her mouth fills with saliva that she wicks away with a pass of her tongue across her nose, and she is off after it. The path winds towards the adjacent mountain although she remains ignorant of her trajectory — her head is downcast as she shuffles along through the trees, snuffling and roaming on the trail of the hare.

She does not see the stranger. The sound of something moving ahead of her is what catches her attention first and, eager to a fault, Rheia plunges in pursuit before realizing that she's squared herself off against something much larger than a mere rodent. The collision is quick; she doesn't know if she careens in to a bush, a tree, or the wolf but she does throttle herself against something and go for a melodious tumble through the greenery.