-- losing sleep

The desert was a far cry from Glaciem, which inhabited the icy expanses of the North. It still wasn't home to Irin, despite how long she had lived there. It might be, with time, and she liked the wolves well enough, she supposed, but she was intimidated by them. It was easier to deal in her imagination and dreams than to pretend that she was comfortable around the wolves of Glaciem, who were all so confident and happy and such things. And so Irin had wandered a little (a lot) and had found herself here, in these mysterious and very hot lands. She wasn't sure she entirely approved of them. Almost as soon as Irin had approached the dry expanses of western Alacritia, she had found herself missing the coolness of Glaciem's lands.

Even in summer, they never approached the soaring heat that this place posessed with a vengeance. Irin didn't like it one bit, but this was the kind of place that Irin could find her newest prey; wolves that breathed fire. She could pretend that they existed in a place like this, where fire would probably be cooler than the dry air that Irin breathed. She was already pretty much miserable. Maybe it was time to head back. And yet, Irin didn't want to give up. No, her prey had to be close by.

And so Irin soldiered on, padding along through a basin that had probably once contained water, so long ago that only the earth remembered it. Things would be so much easier if she could talk to the earth. It could surely point her in the direction of the things she sought, and tell her stories of the many interesting wolves that had walked across the earth's surface. Oh, that would be lovely!



"speech"