its coarse and rough

A seemingly endless expanse of sand stretched on forever and ever in front of her, and god was Kaija sick of this place. She wanted to climb mountains and see grand, vast forests, not trudge through sand until her legs were about to fall off. She let out an annoyed sigh as she directed herself away from the stretch of sand and moved toward - well, more sand, but here it seemed harder-packed and broken up by little shrubs and cacti. It was mildly more interesting, but barely still. It was hard to get the thought of leaving the west out of her head once it finally arrived - the world was so big and she felt drawn to explore it, but she didn't necessarily want to leave her family either. She didn't really want to choose though. Why couldn't she have both?

She let out an annoyed little huff as she climbed a little mound and faced a muddy, pathetic little river just below. Truthfully she was surprised there was any water there at all but it'd been an unusual wet month so far, and she wasn't sure that was such a good thing. Sand was a pain, but muddy sand was even worse. She paused to stretch her toes out and flick some stuck sand out of them before she trudged on, catching sight of someone up ahead. That someone was a very rotund someone but all she cared about was getting some amusement out of this terrible place. Company was almost always welcome to her. And as she got closer, it became suddenly clear that she knew exactly who this was. This was her friend Ophie! It'd been a long time since she'd seen her but that didn't deter from the wide grin that sudden broke across her features as she bounded forward, nearly stumbling over her own paws as she barrelled toward her - and then straight into her. It was possible she would send both of them sprawling into the water, though Ophie had already been wading in it, it seemed to her.