NEED MORE THREADS. AM STEALING. SSWM:533

Dahlia de Mai had been quite for quite some time. No one concerning had come to the borders, and they had scouts enough to watch the lands. There were plenty of hunters to feed them and Nayru knew that her presence, almost invisible even when she was among them, would not be missed for the few short days she journeyed outside the lands. Having watered and cared for all the plants her little greenhouse contained before she set off, the girl exited Dahlia out of the eastern end. The cow patterned lady carried with her only her dagger, sheathed and strapped by her garnet anklet, and the ruby necklace that matched her eyes so well. So delicate and small the stones of both adornments were they barely showed against her thick fur, just small splashes of red to break up the black and white splotches of her pelt, smaller and more sparkly versions of her eyes.

Nayru wandered east for a ways, skirting Inferni as had become her habit. Not that she was scared of the place, or the coyotes she had met from the clan, but it had been advised that she keep out of their way. And as the proper Dahlian that she was, she obeyed such wishes, from who they had come she couldn’t remember. Had Conor told her that? Bris? Saluce? She couldn’t remember. The only voice she did recall warning her of Inferni’s wrath had been Razekiel’s, and his words held little authority over her. Yet avoid the clan’s lands she did, and it took her all the more time to reach Drifter Bay because of this. It was only when she had cleared their land by a few miles she tuned north, her pace never tiring despite the long hours she walked.

Truthfully the girl had never gone so far north before, having only explored the mountains and forests that lay between Inferni and Anathema. It was her lack of knowing what lay beyond which had prompted the spontaneous trek. As she passed the skeletons of many sunflowers she passed on. Perhaps in the spring or summer there would be something to see here, but the death remains of flowers in full bloom only caused a grief in her heart. It was when she came to the tiny village she slowed, her body glad for the rest she had denied it for so long. Nose to the air she tested the area, and found the lingering scent of coyote and Inferni.

The irony of skirting the pack so carefully and yet being among one of their members was not lost on the girl. It might have been better for her to turn around, but she had come so far, and surely the universe wouldn’t throw an individual in her path if she were not meant to meet them? It was this loosely held belief that caused her to follow the trail, once she caught it up better, and her more firmly held belief that there was good in everyone, even Inferni members, that allowed her the courage to place her hand on the cabin door, calling out in her soft and soothing voice as she did. ”Hello?”