Leaves On Wind

No one in their right mind would have risked stepping onto the bridge. Did that mean, then, that Hayai wasn't one of the sane ones? Perhaps. Or perhaps she felt that she had nothing to fear. She was young, skilled, agile....There was no way that she--let alone any other Iga warrior--would let herself succumb to this frigid place. She'd told herself this upon finding it. It went on for as long as her little eyes could see, stretching off into a place far too distant for her to make out from the shoreline, practically challenging her to come take a look. And who would she be to turn down a challenge?

But confidence didn't add enough height or bulk to her frame to help her brace against the roaring wind. Not even a mile into it, Hayai was forced to hug the ground. Claws dug desperately at rock-hard ice, and her belly, its fur too frozen to dampen at any rate that would meld it to the equally frozen ground, brushed roughly against the bridge's surface as she crawled. Reach by reach of her forelimbs she moved, trying to maintain as low a profile as she could to help her escape getting caught in a gust of air. At her regular height, she'd be carried off like a leaf on a breeze, but down here, at least, she hoped to make herself more steady.

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