As ragged paws pushed her aching body up the final few steps to the top of the mountain, a familiar valley stretched below, but it wasn't one she could quite place a name or time on. Her brows drew down with familiar worry, she knew she had become a burden but just on who she couldn't quite place. With a click of her tongue she moved forward, not quite knowing where she was going, but not quite remembering where she had come from either. Her once lush coat was dull with age, bright eyes beginning to cloud. Every step was a chore but it wasn't a challenge she was willing to back down from just because it hurt a little. Something in her heart told her this was where she was meant to be.

There were two paths she could take, one would go down into the pass, still gently lined with grass, but why would she think still? The other went up along the line of the cliff and would give her a better overview. Although somewhere in the back of her mind something kept whispering Sage, cougar, danger, she gave her head a small shake. She didn't need plants and there was no cougar on the breeze. She would take the higher path.

So preoccupied with where she was placing her feet, she didn't catch sight of the other wolf until a swirl of wind hit her full force, snapping her head up in a way that left her neck aching. Golden fur catching in the afternoon light caused her tail to wave and a name to leave her mouth at barely a whisper. "Kano?" but that couldn't be right... "We looked for you everywhere..."

Wrong. Danger. Wrong.

Eurus. As though summoned by the utterance of the name alone a chilled wind roared in from the east, coming through her summer coat, promising of a harsh winter to come. A rumble started to ring in her ears and it felt as though the earth itself was lurching under her feet, but was it? The mountain was known to grumble and shake but this time she wasn't entirely sure it wasn't just all in her head. Her toes dug into the stony earth, the familiar chill helping to ground her and drag her back from childhood ghost stories... But how did she know her name? For a moment she considered lying, but something in the yearling's stance told her that that would be a terrible idea. "Yes."

She allowed the word to hang in the air, her age-addled mind slow to catch up with the events that were unfurling. There was a wolf, that looked like her brother, who knew her name. Her name was one that she had heard as a child herself - the fearsome mother of her grandmother, who tore across the tundra exterminating the unworthy... She had even driven her own daughter out, and for what? The colour of her pelt? Because it had been a bad year and her pale coated siblings hadn't made it... "Eurus is a very pretty name, but it's perhaps one you might not wish to utter north of here..." She was digging, rather clumsily, but she had to know.

A chill passed down the old wolf's spine as she considered the other's not quite smile. Did that mean a judgement had been passed against her? Well, she supposed she had it coming, she was meant to return home before Treyah and Reiko had been born... but, did that mean they had her son? For a moment she might have thought her heart had stopped, but the resounding thud of another beat radiated from her ribcage and she dared to step in closer. "What do you want?" She finally cut to the chase. "Why are you here?"

Her hackles rose defensively as her chin dipped low. Again the earth seemed to shudder beneath her paws but this time she paid the movement less mind. Was this really something worth wasting breath on when she could beat the answers out of her? Was the girl just playing mind games or could she back up her words with more? For a moment the image of Treyah pushing her down played through her mind, her joints buckling in her advance but she was too pig-headed to back down now. She didn't account for the movement of the mountain and she faltered.

What was the price going to be this time?

The girl wasn't moving, or she was - at least she had turned to face her now but it wasn't enough to wipe the smile from her face... If anything it was growing slightly scarier as it took on a more genuine edge. What on earth was the girl thinking? Why wasn't she moving to take her head on or scampering back down into that cursed forest? The earth had seemed to still for now but she expected at least one more aftershock to come. And there it was, or was it? She had expected to meet solid ground but instead, it pitched her dangerously close to the edge of the cliff, pure terror painted clearly on her wide-eyed face as her legs buckled and dull claws scrambled to find purchase on the unforgiving stone, and then there was nothing.

The air began to rush around her body and she didn't dare to open her eyes. She had always thought it would end something like this. Her battered body struck a protruding rock as she fell, a yelp ripped from her winded lungs as she continued to tumble until finally she was still again and everything ached. Her eyes cracked enough to look up and see the golden wolf pulling back from the edge of the cliff. She wouldn't come down here. Nobody would know where she was or what ever happened to her.

Her legs were shaking as she tried to gain some control of her body, her eyes falling on the lone gnarled tree, a cold empty den at its base.

With the looming wolf gone from above, Naira did her best to catch her breath but it was coming far faster than she would like. If she was going to go it wouldn't be out in the open like this, she knew that much and so she rallied what little strength she had left to begin to slowly drag herself towards Mapplethorpe's tree. Her teeth gritted as she tried to ignore the heavy scent of blood in the air, knowing that alone would be enough to draw in the cougar that had reclaimed the mountain or possibly even a hungry bear. She almost laughed at herself, her vision was going black around the edges and she was worried about what might happen to her corpse? Pah!

Or was it? The darkness was like a warm embrace, the familiar scent of old wood and earth like a balm to her wounds, the tree trunk sheltering her from the worst of the wind that whipped through her old home. Her back end was dragging as she did her best to curl into a ball, a low whine betraying the level of pain she was in but she didn't bother to lick her wounds. She was just so tired. She allowed her eyes to drift shut, a small smile crossing her face as she whispered, "There you are..." and then she was still.