you're the sun, you've never seen the night

She just wanted to wring one last stop out of her journey to Auster for the festival before she turned and headed back across the sand bridge. There were so many fascinating lands here - stones that glowed in the evening, caves filled with glittering sugar, towering mazes of bamboo... it felt like living in a fantasy land. Everything was new and exciting. Finch flitted to and fro across the continent, drinking it all in. She'd passed this place a few days ago and thought little of it, but she had been too brusque. Now, in the watery dawn light, she could see the great bones looming in the hillside. She'd stopped a ways away to admire it before getting closer, trying to drink in the whole big picture of it all.

That was when she felt an unfamiliar cramping in her lower stomach and the unmistakable warmth of blood. If talking with Wylan had made her blush, this new sensation turned her entire body scarlet. Finch thought she might pass away on the spot. She'd known her first heat was coming, of course - she was no fool. She'd just thought there would have been a little bit more time, or some kind of warning. There had been so many firsts the past few weeks of traipsing around Auster that she'd let herself get carried away. Gulping down the dregs of her shame, she cleaned herself up as best as she could (which was to say, she was so thorough that her jaws were sore from grooming herself meticulously to hide any trace of blood) and got moving. Perhaps she would just... ignore it. There weren't any others around. She'd go exploring and head quickly back across the sand bridge to Avalon to her sisters to complain. Yes, just a few moments longer to poke around these old bones and she'd head out. Finch straightened herself up and set off to explore, picking her way amongst the ribcage of an ancient creature who'd been subsumed by the soil eons ago.