Pursue knowledge, not me.

It had been a long time since Lia had spent any time around Auster. She felt a little guilty skirting around the Hallows. But, she had thought that when she saw them next, she would be someone who was driven, and motivated. Someone who had a purpose. Vanta’s disappearance had ripped away that certainty she had been feeling. She still hunted down slavers, believing the absolute importance of removing all traces of that sick trade. But she did it alone, and that uncertainty was a gaping hole inside of her.

No, she wasn’t ready to visit her oldest friends, not just yet. Instead, she continued deeper into Auster, hunting down another rumour, another possibility of slavers. The trail led her to Aspen Dam, where the scent of water and beaver permeated the air around her. Had she been this way before when she had lived in the Hallows? She couldn’t remember. Her time outside pack lands when she had been a member had been short and far between.

She picked up a trail of a band of wolves, and started to track it. There was every possibility that these she followed were innocent, but she couldn’t pass up investigating. Finding a group out here where her rumours had led her was suspicious. She started to trail them, and before long realised that they were trailing someone else. She bristled, picking up her pace. Had they picked out a victim? She arrived just as the concentration was about to start. The slavers started to surround a brown wolf. “Hey! Leave him alone.” She growled. No one. No one was becoming a slave on her watch.

WC: 276
Total: 548


"Speech"