Blackfeather Woods even though the moon

@Rowan

Imaq slowed to a trot, and then a walk, before halting just beyond the overlapping scent trails that marked the invisible boundaries of the Woods. She took a step forward, to stand level at Rowan's shoulder though the upbringing the diffident shepherd had endured murmured that this was improper of her. Her seaglass gaze peered into the gloomy recesses of the tangled trees, a dark swath of unkempt ebony tresses, then peered up into Rowan's sunlit orbs as if to make sure it was okay that she entered his lands. 

Given that the copper-kissed male granted the seawitch permission, the golden merle tiptoed over and settled back into her prior place by his side -- dwarfed in the leader's shadow as she trailed diligently after him through the gnarled trees. 

Occasionally, the medicine woman wandered away but never farther than a few steps -- afraid to break some taboo or act disrespectfully in the Asenda's home. She sniffed lightly at withered undergrowth and thick roots that threatened to ensnare with a splotchy nose. 

The jade gemstones set in her softened features were touched by a measure of awe as they lifted to the canopy overhead where living shadows flitted and flickered. Corvids; their calls echoing from the forest's center in croaking caws and throaty quorks. 

"How is this?" She murmured, almost inaudibly, to herself. "Sedna's children claiming this land." 

Her cracked gaze moved back to Rowan then, studying him silently. Did he know? Could he feel the spirits that dwelled here, in the roots of the trees -- crackling through the air like the static that preceded lightning. Did it thrum through his pawpads, reverberating through the earth and up into his bones, as it did the shaman?

She dipped her freckled muzzle in a strange bow, spine curving as she lowered it towards the earth, and then straightened as she pointed it skywards to the entwined tree limbs above. Her golden crown turned momentarily, following the flight of a raven as it swooped low over their heads before dissappearing into the depths of the timberland. 

"Home," she reiterated, before adding, "Spirits, here."