Swift River To find a better song

Lana, during a particularly mild night, you come across a tiger salamander emerging from fallen leaves. What a rare sighting!

Lana pushed away from the borders, further than she had ever been before. She wasn't afraid of getting lost, but maybe that was because she didn't care. Charred Ash Draw no longer held anything for her. Naira was gone, Suka was gone, Cannon hated her, Treyah was.. off. Whatever family she had left was already torn apart. The youth wondered if they could recover from this, if there would ever come a day when her heart didn't ache for the things she once had.

Finding a quiet spot by the river, nestled into the trunk of a tree, Lana laid her head against the freshly-revealed soil. They had a warm spell. Well, one just warm enough to melt a bit of the snow away to uncover the Earth in patches. Her tired eyes stared blankly ahead, watching as a salamander crawled out from beneath a pile of soggy leaves. Huh. She thought they had all disappeared for the winter, but apparently that one didn't get the memo. It seemed as though he was all alone too.

She felt bad for the creature. Was he wondering where his family was? Did salamanders have families? Did he care that he was the only guy scuttling about, or was he happy to finally be free of them?

(This post was last modified: Dec 18, 2017, 11:43 AM by Lana.)

Summiter
look what you made me do

He had learned there were places less traveled. He stuck to them when his itchy paws got the better of him. Like now. He was roving the northern parts of the mountain, hoping the warm spell had confused some small creature and it had come out of its den. Even with his quiet sneaking nothing on the mountain seemed to be tricked. The night while helpful in summer didn't seem to matter now. He itched his nose on the side of his leg. As late as it was he should probably just sleep, and return to the Heights by morning. But, he didn't like living with any kind of disappointment.

It was the grove below, along side the peak did he seek.

This he knew wasn't visited a lot.  Wasn't a hot spot like the willows. (At least for the couple times he'd been down here he hadn't met anyone who yelled.) Maybe, here he could snatch a little creature here. The snow was a lot further melted than up top, and he began weaving through the tree trunks quite certain he would find something.

Lana could hear someone in the distance, heading towards her. Maybe it was the wolf-snatcher, and he was coming to gobble her up too. For a moment, she thought maybe that would be alright. At least she would know with certainty what happened to Suka, and Naira. Then maybe she wouldn't have to feel so guilty all of the time. "You come to take me away too?" She called out into the chilly air. Bright eyes turned back towards the salamander, who was shoving himself back into the pile of leaves he'd first emerged from. "Must be nice." She'd certainly like to crawl under a pile of leaves right now.

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity