Winter seemed to only strengthen and deepen the silence that dominated the forest. Despite it's slumber, the blanketed wood still teemed with old magick that remained alive and well. It spoke to Adora, and drew the young woman deep into the heart of the timber to a choked clearing where the stars were visible and the moon shone down vibrantly enough to make the snow shimmer. She took a deep breath, and exhaled smoke that hung stubbornly in the frigid air. Variegated eyes watched their God as she mulled over her predicament with her blonde-haired sweetheart. It seemed things were to be difficult, but wasn't love worth fighting for? Adora began to dig, punching through the icy shell and shoveling in big scooping motions. She needed to reach dirt, needed to know what Mother had to say about this. Because her heart was burning and every answer seemed wrong and she did not know why. Word Count: 155, for Sedna only.

As much as she loved her garden, there were some things that simply wouldn’t grow there. It wasn’t dark enough or damp enough, and soon everything would be buried under deep snow. This was her last chance to dig up what she needed. The Archer-Lyall didn’t like leaving Armada lands, especially not alone after what happened at the obsidian beach, but it was necessary.

The sound of scratching, someone else digging, filled her ears and she stopped, Otis’s fingers digging into the thick fur over her shoulders. She gave her tail a flick, feeling the weight of the small blade that was strapped there. Yer need not fear the dark forest, Matilda’s words echoed in the back of her head, because yer should know in yer soul that yer th’ most terrifyin’ thing here.

She would have snorted, except that it would have given her away. She spotted the dark shape, something tugging in familiarity and kinship at the back of her mind, and yet, she paused, offering a chuff of greeting instead. No point scaring the other wolf.

"speech".

we wear red so they don’t see us bleed

Thankfully she didn't have far to dig, and her dull claws soon scraped the frozen dirt. It was nearly in the same moment that she heard something, a breathy greeting from nearby. Her head popped up and Adora's vivid eyes locked onto the features of another wolf. She braced, readying herself to bolt if needed, but the apprehension in her muscles did not reach her dial. The priestess watched the other with simple curiosity. After a beat, she sniffed at the air, searching for clues in the complexity of the other's scent. A wolf with a pack, perhaps? In Adora's experience, that would make the other woman far less likely to cause trouble, as she would therefor be a lot less desperate than fellow travelers. If only it weren't Winter, she'd have Maeve peek out of her scarf to watch her back. As it were, much could not be asked of the sluggish reptile, and she was still itching for those answers, so Adora made the choice to trust her fellow wolf. Her inky dark tail wagged a few times through the air, punctuated with an amiable rrrorf before Adora turned around and went back to her business. Her claws tore at the dirt, chipping away the ice's hold. When it finally began to break away in hard clods, she spread her legs and hiked the dirt between them with exuberant and strong scoops of her front paws. The chunks arced high through the air before landing audibly as they punched through the snow's crust. Four volleys later, she abandoned her hole to begin intensely analyzing where and how each and every clump landed. Word Count: 274