What Is Lost

Natha had been planning on traveling alone but it seemed fate had other ideas. She'd managed to pick up a pair of traveling companions. One she was pretty sure Shorty would be pleased with but she wasn't so sure about the other. Skælingr, a handsome bobcat, trailed along at her heels, his green eyes taking in the sites around her. On her back rested Myskia, a flying fox. She and Skæ had rescued the bat from a pair of coyotes who seemed quite keen on chewing on the poor creature but she'd been too wounded to take off on her own. Thankfully, Skælingr knew some basic healing and was able to patch the little creature up but now they were stuck with her. The oddest couple of 'parents' to ever walk the land.

On a whim Natha had opted to travel south to see what was going on with the volcano. Everything had been quiet so far and she was curious to find out if it was truly over. Spending most of her time in the northwest meant that she didn't see as much of the volcanos effects and from where she was she could see no evidence that it was still active. When she and her companions arrived at the base of the volcano it clearly seemed dormant. There was no smoke rising out of it, no ash cloud. The ground beneath them was still, at least for now.

It was a beautiful autumn day. The sky was a pale blue with only a few thin white clouds streaking through the sky. A trio of birds passed by over head but they did not stop to land. Natha couldn't blame them. There was nothing covering the mountain but charred tree trunks and ash covered rock. Hardened flows of lava traced intricate and eerie patterns down the mountainside. It made Natha's fur stand on end. She bent her head and sniffed lightly at the ground before wrinkling her nose. "Ugh, this ground smells strange. The air smells strange. Everything smells weird here." Myskia lifted her head up and peered about, her dark eyes blinking. "I just hope there aren't a bunch of toxic chemicals out here. I agree, it doesn't smell right." She buried her face back in Natha's fur. She loved trees and forests, she hated to look out at this miserable landscape.

Skælingr pressed ahead, ears flicking forr\ward. He paused for a moment then turned back to Natha and shrugged. "I don't hear much of anything. No rodents, no insects, no water. This place is worse than a desert." Natha padded over to him and gazed about again at the beaten and blackened landscape. It truly was terrible looking. A giant black scar on Boreas that would take ages to heal if it ever truly did. Her hind legs bunched beneath her and she leapt elegantly up onto a nearby ledge. The ground here was coated with a thick layer of ash that must've mixed with rain and dried into an unusual substance. She wrinkled her nose. She didn't like it and she was beginning to realize that this stuff was not going to be fun to clean off her fur. She lifted one of her paws, turning it over to look at the paw pad. Yup, just as she suspected. It was charred black.

Natha leapt back down off the ledge. "Well, the important thing is the volcano seems dormant now. There may be a few more after tremors but the worst looks to be over." Skælingr nodded.

"Yea, over for now anyway." Natha didn't say anything but she knew he was right. How did one tell whether or not a volcano would become dormant permanently? She had no way to know for certain that the volcano wouldn't decide to just up and erupt again several years in the future. All the more reason for her to stay in the north although… her thoughts drifted to the dormant volcanos she'd seen up there. Were they truly dormant? For good? She eyed the volcano again, taking in its shape. The top was disfigured but it still boasted its cone-like shape. It also didn't have any odd ring around it like the northern volcanos but that could be because those were surrounded by water. Or it could be that she just hadn't gone high enough to see. She didn't plan to either. What she was seeing here right now was enough for her. The place was a mess and had little to offer in the case of valuable resources. Unless she wanted to try making marks with charcoal but she didn't really have any plans for any such activity.

"I don't like it here," said Myskia. "Can we go now? I'd rather be around green and living things, not this depressing place." Natha nodded and was about to turn to leave when Skælingr called her over. There, embedded in the ash, was a wolf skeleton. The head and shoulder blades were poking up out of the ash. Natha wrinkled her nose. "Well, it looks like some unlucky soul was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m with Myskia, let’s get out of here.”