Silver Moraine swifter than the moon's sphere;

---

she was growing worried.
the sun had already began to dip past its zenith, and still, her companion did not return. she shifted carefully her poised stance, dipping up her muzzle once more and issuing a wary call. the sliver of song faded into the lull of midday, and her ears pricked atop her skull as she waited carefully for a reply. when the lull continued unabated did she finally rise, taking a few wary steps to the south. she knew the hunting ought to be hard, here, for even without sight it was obvious that this land was barren and lifeless, even in the midst of this changing of seasons. 

she wonders briefly if something had taken togo - something dark, something that would inhabit a place as empty as this. her friend had left her near the eastern edge, and the vast expanse of unknown emptiness to her right had her unnerved. the prickle of unknown eyes burning into her had her scan once the expanse, revealing little else beside light and blurred shadow, a range of greys and blues. 

she begins to pick her way south, a venture made tenfold as difficult without togo to point out all the crevices and clusters of rock and ice, the latter of which is plenty, here. moving is arduous and slow, and yet her nerves can not allow her to remain rooted where she'd been left, not when monsters and dark things roam this place.

---

For reference, I'll be npc'ing Nanook! (:

After tending to the burial of the elder sage, her aunt had insisted they return to the South. Clary had wanted to stay - but she offered little protest. She knew any arguing would only serve to get her snout grasped with a warning hold, especially with the way her aunt's emotions seemed to rage these days - but Clary forgave her for that. The ancient wolf hadn't been family, but she'd been a sort of mother to Nanook, and Clary figured if Valette ever died, well... she didn't really know what she would do, but probably nothing good.

Yet she had found the guts to butter up and ask - politely so - that they, maybe, return a different way? To see places they hadn't seen on their trip out? Because who really knew when ma would let her go off on an adventure like this again? Nanook had looked at her funny-like, nothing out of the norm for her aunt, but Clary knew she'd scored a win when she hadn't just growled a noise that roughly sounded like no, but actually seemed to give her words some thought.

And this place was unlike any place she'd ever been.

Okay, well, back up there. The moraine wasn't really anything spectacular. It was little dull compared the grand sights she and her aunt had seen on the other legs of their journey, and truthfully, there were more interesting things than rocks to see even in Easthollow. But the boring grey of Nanook's fur seems to render invisible the moment she dips into the rocky scar, and Clary sucks in a wonderous breath - will invisibility envelop her, too? The thought makes her giddy and she bounds ahead to pass the shadow of Nanook, dancing from rock to rock and revelling in what she thinks is a cloak of camouflage - only redirect her course when pale movement catches her eye.

She pricks her ears. Another wolf - and before Nanook can catch her, she's already scaling her way with long and gangly limbs over rocks and ice to where the pale stranger struggles on her own path. "Hey!" she chuffs out, voice youthful and bright. She shoots a glance at Nanook behind her, who is watching with a stiffness that brings Clary to approach no closer. But the stranger was travelling so slow and staggered, and Clary swings her head back around, her face still beaming, and chirps anyway, "Y'look like you're havin' a hard time. Need a paw?"

---

she stops still when her paw skids out to the right alarming far, heart beating a wild rhythm in her chest. the slightest breeze pushes through close-cropped cream fur, and yet the young sylph can hardly focus on what message it brings; of hope, new life and renewal. surely she ought to call for togo again; and yet alone after so long, fear makes her timid. she flinches when the voice calls, and she realizes then the heavy tension lays over her. clouded and faded bicoloured gaze twists back, roaming over rock and yet noticing nothing unusual. there, perhaps - a flicker of movement, and that is where her gaze lingers when the voice begins again.

optics affixed solidly to a mound of ice and stone, her roving ears catch that something if off, and yet she does not correct her gaze. her reply does not come immediately, and when it does, it is soft and wavering. "I am lost." for a moment, she wonders perhaps if this is some evil spirit, come to trick her the same why something has clearly tricked and stolen away her friend. but there is some quality of sincerity and youthfulness in the voice that the girl that she can not believe a spirit is capable of recognizing, and her next request comes a little more boldly. 

"could you tell me how to leave this place? this - rock, and ice."  the words are somewhat awkward, for she has gotten used to the constant presence of togo by her side, the one who surely must know her more thoroughly than anyone. she does not need to use breath and words to communicate with the woman, whose every touch and song have meaning and direction. too long has she been alone with little else than her devoted companion, and here she finds herself in this loud and crowded place; one that carries the same half-familiarity than a dream dreamed twice.

---

Clary is met with a roving gaze, as the stranger searches into every space but hers. The youth is confused for a moment, until she remembers - well, duh! Of course the other can't seem to find her - inside these rocks, she's invisible. A smile presses her lips and she lifts her tail and waves the black tip back and forth, as a sort of homing beacon to draw the stranger's attention toward her, until the woman's eyes fall somewhere nearish where she stands.

Kind of. Sort of.

Not really.

She frowns when the woman choose to stare at a spot Clary most definitely isn't, but the girl has grace for that. She has to lean forward to catch what the woman whispers, and she is quick to shoot Nanook a questioning glace. Her aunt hasn't shifted, but looks on with what Clary decides is concern, and the grey girl takes this as permission enough to help. She probably would have, anyway, even if her aunt had protested. Clary feels a tangible ache for the pale woman. She herself has never been lost, but she's heard enough stories from the adults, and enough warnings from her mother, to know that being lost is one of the most dreadful things, a thing she wouldn't wish on any wolf - friend or enemy. Not like she would ever have any of the latter to wish something like that upon.

The woman's mannerisms brighten a smile on Clary's face, for they remind her of her aunt, and she finds comfort in this. "Oh, yeah, that's easy!" and she sprites closer, scrabbling over rock and ice with as much grace as a girl can muster over land like this - which isn't much, but she's grateful enough that she's able to keep her movement upright and forward. She exhales her instructions as she hops from rock to rock. "That reeaaally far line of evergreens to the left and the right of you?" she swings a nod in both directions toward the distant sentries - "you'll wanna make your way over to those. That's your quickest way out of here, and it'll get you outta the rock and ice." Clary herself had only been through one stretch of the trees before, but surely the other couldn't be much different, right?