this second’s fancy

Spark's journey further into the norther continent brought her upon a rather unusual landscape, she had never seen a land so barren before, even the deserts she had crossed had not been as desolate as they looked, life still thrived in the sands, simply hidden from view. But here? It was as though the rest of the world knew something she did not. And indeed the young woman would learn quickly enough that there was indeed a reason that things seemed so empty here.

Her paws had sunk into the ground under her, luckily Spark was a quick thinker and mover and hadn't put all her weight on her forepaw and was able to retract herself from the hidden sinkhole. And so her journey was a slow and methodical one, making sure she always had a safe route to retreat to if the path ahead proved too treacherous.

It was some time before she stumbled across the next oddity these lands held, which was something that would have been mundane to stumble across in most any land but this one but stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the danger and desolation. A pup, only a season or two younger than herself making was looked like... skulls upon a string?  

Spark approached cautiously, certainly, no mother would have left their child alone in such a dangerous place? She lifted her voice just enough to call out to him, her paws tapping out her inflection: Greeting, friendly, cautious. "Greetings!" She approached a few more steps, the boy carried the scent of a pack on him but no fresh scent of any other particular wolves, was he alone out here? "What are you doing?" She asked, her tone flat and face its usual mask though her paws still signed out her tone: Curious. Not that she expected anyone this far out to be able to read her signs, only her uncle had been able to do so ever since she'd left Auster. It seemed the lands were swarming with barbarians who could neither read her signs nor understand proper etiquette and instead wore their expressions on their faces and in their voices.

"Speech"