winding roads that lead to home

Vanta had taken her cruel brother's words to heart while they'd only managed to inflame the hate in Kite's. If she couldn't grow up to be a strong fighter or navigator or intellect, she would work at hunting. Her crystalline gaze did not impede her in night hunts, and if worse came to worse she could always tuck away in a cavern skinning, tanning and preparing hides or meat. It was not the lot in life she expected, but without the strong will of her equally disabled sister, Vanta knew not what else to do other than accept it.

She'd trailed a mouse from the Col's northern entrance deep into the adjoining tunnels. It was the least-used section of the warrens as far as den sites went, and some tunnels were clearly suffering from lack of use, their walls dusty and the doorways adorned with cobwebs. Catching the rodents that had holed up in and reclaimed the dens was something she knew the Warlord could at least appreciate, and they were small enough that she had a chance against them.. unlike the northern caribou the grown hunters could bring back.

She chased the mouse onward to a fork in the tunnels, skidding to a sudden halt as a sunbeam flooded in through a crack in the walls. It blinded her just long enough to miss which turn the rodent took, and by the time she stepped out of the light and let her eyes readjust, she'd lost it. Damnit. "Mousey.. mousey.. where'd you go?" The pup whispered, crouching low and poking her head in both tunnels, hoping to get a clue of which way to take.

Word Count: 278

"Speech"