Whitebark Stream I'll send a postcard to you, dear

maybe a Saatsine wolf? *pleading eyes*

The Sunspires called to her, and yet each time she made for their foothills it was as if an invisible force held her back. At first, Yuralria had chalked up her hesitance to the bad weather. After all, who would want to cross the mountains in a blizzard?

But as time passed, so too did her ignorance. For beyond the snow-capped peaks lay the flatlands and further still rose Moonglow. Home. Vairë. And things started to click into place. 

Angry tears wet her eyes and she ran, as if she could already feel moondoe's disdainful gaze upon her. Returning home would mean regressing back to the same routine of caring for her ailing mother day in day out. Even under Kukutux' guidance, the stargirl was unsure if she had the strength to do it anymore.

A sharp gasp as her paws broke ice and plunged into the frigid waters of a stream. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath.

she did not return to qeya river.

she left it behind and with it came support for the chieftain's decision in moving. the rest would be safer, away from those who might wish to return to the river. yet time had marched so far that she felt certain none might come again.

however she kept this river within her grasp for selfish reasons.

it was here she found a girl. young enough to not look beyond her first full year. one who tested the frigid waters of the river.

you walk alone? she called out sharply.

k'edghildza had not wandered often. she didn't tend to stray far from sun eater's scent, finding comfort that her husband was always within an ear shot. but her growing friendship with ice diver had her, more often than not, breaching the levels of which she would scathe the borders.

she had followed the broad woman. her tracks were large through the snow. k'edghildza mirrored them, stepping atop once where she had been.

she found her! and someone else? k'edghildza's ears perked, her disposition much, much softer than the war chiefs. she approached ice diver with a low chuff, signaling her arrival there, beside her.

but then the ice broke.

alarmed, shouldn't we help her?

Icy water collided with her front half, seeping through her winter fur as Yuralria toppled head-first into the stream. The cold sucked the air from her lungs and for a brief, scary moment, she forgot entirely how to breathe. This was the end. Moondoe would not find her body out here in the taiga, far from the warmth of her ulaq. 

Fortunately for Yuralria, the stream here was not deep enough to submerge a wolf beyond one's ankles and, with a few clumsy scrabbles, she emerged bedraggled and chilled to the bone. Only to realise she had an audience. 

"The hell," she muttered, cheeks flaming as she shook the water from her pelt. Who were these two? Yuralria had been too consumed in her own dramatics to catch much of their conversation. Rosewater eyes flicked from a sullen, mountain of a woman to one of more regal stature who's eyes betrayed her concern. "Who the f-f-fuck are you?" By now, shivers had begun to wrack her body but the stargirl drew herself up as tall as she could in an effort to conceal her misery from her mysterious onlookers.