The ice bridge to the north seemed to be melting, which Kiela hoped meant things were going back to normal. Not that there was really a normal when it came to weather and its cyclical patterns. Mother nature was as unpredictable as it got, but based on her observations - and her infrequent conversations with the wolves that inhabited these parts - things had been unusually erratic. The north was colder than usual, and though it was hardly as bitter as her homelands, she was amazed at how long winter's grasp clung to the lands. By now she expected to see more snow melting, to at least occasionally feel the warmth of the sun struggling to thaw the frozen ground, but she'd experienced little of that; and even further north, where she currently was, it felt like winter was just around the corner again.

She shivered as a gust of wind ruffled her coat, and she braced herself against the cold, her pace picking up. Moving was a surefire way to escape the cold, at least temporarily. Finding some sort of shelter before the sun set was her goal but she wasn't sure how far off she was from it. All she could see before her, stretching toward the distance horizon, was a plain of jagged ice and snow. Taking in a measured breath, she willed herself to continue on. Before her was a desolate expanse, and the sky above was a dreary shade of grey, but the bleakness didn't deter her; such was the life of a true northerner, after all.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn's ears flattened against the snow that fell lazily from the gray sky. Large flakes drifted to earth and collected on the frozen ground as she worked her way up the nearest glacier. When she at last reached the top it took her breath away. A field of jagged, gray and silver glaciers stretched out before her, a field of gloomy ice leading out to a sullen gray sea. Above her the sky faded in a gentle gradient from pale to deep silver, right to the horizon where it met the ocean. Jynn shivered as the wind began to pick up and she decided it was time to find some shelter. As she navigated along the nearest path she spied a figure moving amongst the ice. "Hello there, hey, wait for me!" She could do with some company. Scrambling down the path she headed toward the figure. "Hey there, I'm Jynn. Have we met before?"

Snow was hardly a bother to her, and truthfully this was a far cry from what she'd consider a true snow storm. The fat flakes fell gently from the sky, occasionally landing on her nose and being abandoned with a slight flick of her head. Her surroundings were quite gloomy but it didn't ruin her mood. The fall and the winter, the most brutal of the seasons, were when she truly felt most alive; surviving was as much an experience as it was the end goal, and the life of a loner was hardly an easy one, especially so far north. And speaking of being alone..

She heard the sound of someone up ahead. Not long after they approached, scrambling over the ice and calling for her to wait. Friendliness wasn't her strongest quality but it'd been a long time since she'd come across anyone and she was curious what someone else might be doing up here... someone that looked so different from her, too. From any canine she'd ever seen, if she was being honest. "Hello," Kiela called out after a moment, keeping a polite distance but still giving the stranger a good once-over. "I do not think so. My name is Kiela. What brings you... out here?" She gestured vaguely across the ice with her snout, wondering if she was an inhabitant of the north as well.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

As Jynn got closer the other woman's features came into sharper focus and she found she did not recognize the others gorgeous markings. "Ah, so you're right. My name is Jynn and I just thought I'd do some exploring of the north before winter came. I didn't realize snow would be moving in already!" In hindsight it made sense. They'd had bitterly cold temperatures for seasons now and with winter looming around the corner she shouldn't have expected any different.

Jynn stumbled on the slippery pathway but quickly recovered her footing. There were a number of precarious paths looping their way through the glaciers but it was not the sort of terrain she was used to navigating. "I hope one day to explore all of the north. Doubt I'll get that done before winter but I wanted to at least start. What about you? What brings you up here?"

Kiela nodded slowly, acknowledging Jynn's words. Casual conversation didn't come easily to her but she'd gotten better at it since leaving her homelands, even if her fluency in this language was hardly perfect. "Jynn. Nice to meet you," she gave her a nod, slowly her pace carefully until she stalled. She didn't want to stay still for long though, wanting to keep the cold at bay and keep moving before the daylight disappeared entirely. "Winter, it seems to be coming quick. We barely had a summer at all." This summer had still been milder than the first she remembered experiencing, far away from here, but she knew this weather wasn't typical here, and neither had those massive hooved beasts, either. Now that was something she'd never forget seeing.

"Careful," she called out, half reminding herself as she was Jynn. "I just came to explore. To see what's out here. Ice, it seems," she concluded with a dry chuckle. Soon she'd reunite with her reindeer herd and make sure they were being tended to properly before the winter fully set in. The last few seasons had not been kind to them and it was her duty to make sure the herd was surviving as well as they could. "You live here? This far north?" Kiela glanced back at her as she started moving, her body language signalling that she intended to keep talking, she just didn't want to grow idle for too long.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn matched her pace with Kiela's, seeking to walk next to the other woman. She nodded in agreement. It seemed like forever since she'd experienced a summer and in some ways it was depressing that they'd be moving into winter again so soon. Kiela explained that she was out exploring as well. She asked if Jynn lived here and Jynn was about to answer but when she'd turned her head to look at Kiela she'd taken her eyes off the path. "Actually I-"

He next paw step missed and she was sent sliding down to the base of a smaller glacier. "Ugh… I'm ok. No, I'm not from the north. I'm actually from Auster." Wincing she shook the snow offer her pelt. Oh yea, she was gonna have some bruises tomorrow. She was about to work her way back up when a stray band of sunlight broke through the clouds, striking the glacier's smooth, glass-like walls. Within it she could see fossils and bones and it made her fur stand straight up. She turned tail, working to scramble her way back up toward Kiela.

This stranger was certainly built like no one she'd ever met before, smaller than her - but more noticeably, she was built entirely different from her, with a slender body and long legs. Kiela thought that she didn't seem the type to be accustomed to the north, but that didn't mean much. Some individuals thrived on challenges and pushing their comfort level, and perhaps Jynn subscribed to a similar mindset. She wasn't thinking too much about her abilities when Jynn shifted in the corner of her vision, slipping down the edge of one of the smaller glaciers. "You are okay?" Kiela called out softly after a moment, watching Jynn regain her composure and begin her ascent back to the path they'd been following.

Though the terrain looked simple, this journey was actually treacherous one. The surface of the ice, though dusted over in spots, was surprisingly slick in others. Some peaks were higher than they appeared, an illusion thanks to the vast stretch of ice and little else that stretched for what felt like miles in every direction. The midday sun reflecting sharply off the exposed sections of ice briefly caught her eye and blinded her, though she squinted against the light and twisted around to watch Jynn's ascent. "Auster? Where is that?" Kiela had gone further south a few times but largely she had remained in the north, and she'd definitely never heard of an Auster than she could recall.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn chose her footing more carefully, eyes cast downward until she finally reached the top path where Kiela was. "Oof, I've picked up more bruises on this trip than I know what to do with. Auster is very, very far from here. It's south of Boreas across a bridge of sand." It was going to take her a good while to get back so she wanted to do as much exploring of the north as possible before it was time to return. At least the snow had stopped and the clouds… well, they were still hanging around but at least the sun was trying to break through. "I'm thinking of heading down to the Submerged Woods. Would you like to join me?"

Kiela couldn't help but be wary of the leggier female, worried now she might take another tumble. She herself hadn't suffered any similar injuries in the last few days but she knew it was not uncommon when traveling in the north. Ice was just one of the many dangers that travelers in the north were presented with regularly. "Probably not a place I'll ever go. Unless caribou are there?" A slight, wry smile touched her lips. Traveling the world just for the sake of seeing it all wasn't her main motivator for being a wanderer; the caribou were. Living was just a byproduct of that. It didn't matter where she went at this precise moment though. Snow continued to drift sporadically from the sky, but she didn't fear a storm, at least not in the immediate future. "If you know the way, I'd be glad to follow." She wasn't going to go further north today and she could only presume these woods were in a different direction, and Kiela didn't mind shaking things up a little to figure out where she wanted to head next.