Born Anew... still cold though

Amaranth woke to the strangest sound. She was still curled up in her den beneath the roots, and although the entrance was snowed over and closed up, it was light enough outside to shine through the snow. Alright, daytime then. But what was it that had woken her up? Her ears twitched and it took her a moment to realize that it wasn’t a sound at all that had pulled her from her dreams. It was the lack of it.

Mara gasped and surged upwards, bursting forth from her den, very much a young pup again leaping after her first butterfly. She squinted, not anticipating the sudden intensity of light. The sun was brilliantly bright in a mostly clear sky. Thin wisps of cloud were not enough to stop it shining down on a blanket of white, and it nearly blinded her. Drifts piled high against anything sturdy enough to have not blown away, and snow caked against tree trunks, plastered there by the fearsome winds. Their branches bowed, weighed down by the stuff.

The blizzard was over. The aftermath was beautiful. The day was hers to do with as she pleased. Spirits high and tail held aloft, she strode away from her den with all the grace she could muster given that getting through that first drift felt more like swimming. Mara was fascinated to see crisp tracks in the snow. The constant wind and bitter cold had made the snow crisp wherever it had not been able to drift, marking the clear passages of the first critters who had awoken and decided to stretch their legs.

She decided on a squirrel’s trail to follow. She wasn’t hungry, so it wasn’t hunting, but she had always been amused by the erratic little beasties. Following in one’s footsteps was amusing too, giving her a bit of insight into their strange little minds as the trails zigged this way and that. The trail would disappear at a trunk, snow scattered as it must have scrambled through the mounded drift, then reappear and carry on. Amaranth was perfectly content to spend her day following tracks, finding herself able to enjoy the snow at last as they led her out of the riverlands and somewhere new.