Desolate Blizzard

[Just gonna snag this reallllllllll quick before someone else does lol, but we can finish willows first if you want ^^]

The volcano was daunting. The mount itself was enormous, to be sure, as was the absolute stillness that encased it. Her ears strained, swiveling this way and that to capture  the slightest sound, and came up short. Only the crunch of her pads as they broke through the layer of snow, and came up muddied and blackened from the volcanic debris that lay underneath; only the sound of her breath filled the unnatural silence. She let her gaze drift here and there, and she only saw the volcano. There were no living trees in sight, no underbrush, nothing to house prey or predator. Everything had been burned away, long before she came to Boreas, and only ice-encrusted heaps remained.

She'd only come this way following the path of the rivers that fed into the hot springs. The woods had grown progressively quieter, the grass dying away until, at last, she'd come to the foot of the mountain. Though Ashen had moved their territory since the eruption, Mal had yet to meet anyone personally affected by the eruption. The event was largely unknown to her... Still. The absolute desolation here could not help but tug at her senses, dull her spirits. A sense of wrongness prickled beneath her pelt, causing her hackles to rise despite no indication of danger.

She picked her way through the ruins. She blinked, the wind stirring, drifting across her nose, and suddenly she was alert for a very different reason. The girl lifted her head and turned slightly to the east of where she was now, seeing a figure much farther ahead of her. Her voice called out against the stillness -- "Cai?" She took a few steps forward, one paw lifted above the earth. "Is that you?"

(289)
Total Word Count: 586

"Speech"