First Snow

Daphne was not a child that had ever really been small enough to sneak. Pair that with her very large and very round cinnamon racoon, the pair practically thundered through the Hallows, rustling underbrush and snapping branches... Or they had, until the oranges and browns of fallen leaves were suddenly blanketed with a fine dusting of white.

Mismatched eyes squinted everywhere, trying to make heads or tails of it. The earth around the hot springs was as bare as ever, apparently warmth was the enemy of the white stuff that made her toes and nose numb if she stuck them in there for too long. It was almost like the cold water. Maybe it would be good to use on hurts too?

As if thinking of healing had been enough to summon the perfect person to ask, she looked up in time to see Luta, a bundle of something in her jaws. The large child’s tail waved about as she thundered forward, with none of the intent to tackle that she would have had if it had been one of the boys she had spotted. "Whatcha got there Lu?" The girl asked excitedly. If anyone knew how to help people, it was this wolf, and one day Daphne hoped she could know even half as much.

"speech".