Here be dragons

The sky was blue as blue could be, and the faint wind was only cool instead of chilled. Its southerly blow trickled through the land and danced across the white earth. The light layer of snow was cool against his paws, and Flash showed no desire in setting foot in the drifts. He instead raced along Al’s back, poised against his tail, before leaping, and grabbing the strap of a saddle bag in one nimble hand, using it to haul himself up and onto the pack horse. Stubborn simply snorted, shaking his head, but otherwise showing no reaction to the mischief of the monkey.

Al didn’t so much as slow as the weight lifted from his back, placing large paws carefully on the snowy ground. A stray end of weat that he had plucked from the saddle bags earlier in the day. He whistled past the stem as he strolled with confident, almost lazy steps through the lands of Alactiris. The sun had risen and set many, many times since he had left his family’s lands, and he had long since reached a point where he no longer recognised a single strip of land.

He would be hopelessly lost if it wasn’t for the auspicious meeting of a colourful wolf. The young Lyrae had directed her towards the lands of a pack that would treat favourably with a tinkerer such as himself. He only regretted that he had not been able to answer the questions she herself had presented to him. No, he had seen no wolf that matched the description of her sister. He didn’t let this bring him down, had apologised and been on his way.

Now, with monkey and pony in tow, he would at last find himself but a few comfortable miles from the border of Fyri. He whistled as he covered the distance, sometimes with a monkey on his back, and sometimes without. Stubborn continued behind him, the same tireless pace in her hooves as the one to his paws.

The towering trees would enter his view before the scent of pack did, and he knew that he had followed the directions given without straying. He turned, weat still in his gum, and smiled at Flash. “And you doubted me, foolish Cebidae” he winked at the monkey, who raised a fist and chitted at him, before his party would stop at the border of Fyri. he seated himself comfortably on the snow, and raised his head, calling out to Fyri.