Find My Way Home

Three years.

This season marked her third spring since her birth, and Alfrun Finnvi had finally chosen to end her self-imposed exile to emerge once more into the world. Curiosity drew the delicate priestess to visit first the more southern lands, leaving the north for the first time in her life. She had not been there long, and she could see already why her mother had always told them that the south made for weak wolves. The lands were a riot of color both in normal sight and the Other Sight, and scent, by the gods, nearly overwhelming scents, and she saw more prey here in these soft lands than she'd seen in months in the harder northern lands. Oh, there was plenty of food in the north for those who knew how to find it, but here the prey practically ran into your jaws of their own accord. It was... a startling experience. One that she was beginning to understand was necessary, as it drove home her mother's teachings more and more. The south seemed like a paradise... but paradise allowed for, and encouraged, weakness.

Take, for instance, the land she found herself in now. She'd been forced to skirt around a couple of closely pressed packs to reach it, and the sulfurous, humid air had nearly made her turn around and leave again. But curiosity and the desire to know more about the southern lands had driven her to keep exploring, and she had gone so far as to dabble a paw into one of the crescent-shaped pools that covered the landscape like dragon scales. Warm, nearly to the point of being uncomfortable but not quite. The overall effect was one of relaxation and sloth, and it drew from Runa an atavistic aversion. The serene innocence of her face hide a pinch of disgust and contempt for the wolves who would choose to make this... eastern region their home.

She turned away from the pool, only to find her gaze resting upon the dark, multicolored pelt of a much larger male a short distance away. His own gaze seemed to be riveted upon another pool. She blinked at him, then twisted her head slightly to bring her Other Sight to bear on him. He did not bear the green aura she associated with healers, not even the sickly red-tainted green of those who habitually worked with poisons... traits that were actually revealed to her by her own acute sense of smell and experience with herbals rather than through the spiritual nature of her eyesight as she believed... but even had they borne the green that did not make them safe, so it did not much matter to Alfrun as anything more than a piece of the puzzle that was a stranger.

Touching her tongue lightly to the deformed roof of her mouth, the viking drifted closer to peer into the pool as well, curious as to what vision the male saw within its depths.