Old Friends Stick Together

Surreal padded away from her conversation with Kavdaya feeling reassured, even relaxed. Not only was the snowy Nomad a fully trained healer, she was also family. A distant cousin. Distance didn’t matter when it came to family, especially from that branch. Kavdaya had offered her own services as a healer should Bass need help in any way, and would be following Surreal to the east when she set off. Kavdaya had taken the fish to the others, and Surreal now meandered through the Estuary, thinking. She would be going east soon. But she would wait for the others to come to her to either offer their own services, or merely to speak to her.

She paused at one of the two seaward edges of the Estuary, paws sinking into the sand as she gazed out to sea, the wind buffeting her face and fur rich with salty air. And in that air, there were the beginnings of fall; of fallen leaves and cooling temperatures. Her children would no longer be pups, not even her youngest. Still, she didn’t feel old, precisely. She was in her prime of life, a perfect age to begin her pack and still have plenty of years to reign and complete Regulus’ training. The Mud Trial would start as soon as the Plains were cleared of the invaders. That trial was an integral part of a future ruler’s training; it prepared them for the event in which they might find themselves blinded. It made them more aware of the land, both where they ruled, and elsewhere.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think