we start with stars in our eyes

WE START BELIEVING THAT WE BELONG | The woman comes upon the oasis at the height of her need. For miles she's traveled through nothing but grit and sand and sun the likes of she's never seen. From this she emerges, mouth dry, paws too-warm, muscles aching a little. When she began her pilgrimage from her home territory, never had she imagined that the world contained such strange, vast new-ness.

She misses her mother. And her aunts and the old biddies who tell stories to the pups underneath the vast expanse of sky. In these new lands, when Juneau looks up, she doesn't recognize any of the stars. There's no stars just now, though. The sun beats down on her pelt and as she trots to the oasis, she shakes off the heat, basking in the sudden drop in temperature around the water, the sun inching behind the massive rock face that bursts up in a semi-circle around the water.

Juneau nearly plunges her face right into the water. She gulps, ears pinned back, paws in the mud and dirt.