anti-curse

For the first time in awhile, Kiela wasn't alone. As she wandered the sparse pine forest, someone trailed along after her - a unusually small yet clearly fully-grown reindeer, hooves kicking up dirt and vegetation where she scrambled along. At first her presence had been confusing, even a little irritating. Reindeer were not meant to follow, not like this, but as soon as she'd come across this little creature clearly rejected by her herd it had followed Kiela like a puppy following its mother. Not that it needed to be taken care of, as Kiela had quickly realized it was an adult and quite capable of taking care of itself, but still it followed her.

Over the last few weeks she'd grown accustomed to the company, though perhaps fortunately for her the creature was silent. If she could speak she hadn't yet, and in turn she rarely needed to communicate with it vocally either. It also didn't spend every waking moment with her, sliding in and out of her orbit easily enough that her company quickly became something she was growing used to.

Kiela's eyes scanned the horizon, watching as Bryndís - what she'd started calling the miniature reindeer - foraged near some tightly clustered pines. Luckily with summer having just arrived the vegetation in the north was more easily found and she swore she could sense her new companion's relief at finding another easy meal.