Up against the roots of a tree, she slumbered. She was dreaming of her family yet again. Her dreams weren't a fixed storyline, just snippets here and there, some real, some manifestations of her anxiety. She saw her mother sharply looking at her with perplexed rage. That look always made Yume feel so small. She saw her father, stoic, barely moving a muscle. He used to encourage her to quiet her mind - he even tried to meditate with her once. But she couldn't sit still for longer than a few minutes. Unlike her perfectly still father who taunted her her with his flat gaze. Next, she saw herself running down the beach, but from a bird's perspective. It was so odd to see herself like that. She looked different than she imagined - like a grown adult. Her plush puppy fur was replaced with a thick coat. Her face, which in her mind was still the rounded, soft baby's face, was sharp and angular, with serious narrowed eyes. The bird's eye view got closer to her face, and Yume turned and glared into her own eyes.

The suddenness broke her dream and she awoke with a gasp. After blinking a few times, she threw back her head and yawned with a little squeak. Ever since she washed up on the shore, she had been having awful dreams and nightmares. Thinking about it made her stomach fill with sour panic, so she tried to keep it from her mind. If she just kept looking for her family, eventually she would find them and everything would go back to normal. Right?

Yume stood and stretched her legs, and took a peek around. The sun was rising, and she wanted to feel it on her back to warm up. She walked towards a clearing nearby and found a nice soft spot to sit and enjoy the warmth.

""

code by Cloudy

Björn⁢ had done it. He'd mad it happen, in far less time than his father. The boy knew the stories, and he was squared up against... more things. Frankly, far more things, than the man before him. At this rate, it feels like there's nothing he can't do. Emboldened by it, Björn⁢ is electric as he moves southward. There's one piece of the puzzle missing, a girl he intends to take back as his own. Resolve in him, there would be no trying to reason with her father. He doesn't plan on it, not in the slightest.

Perhaps there's something unsettling in Björn⁢'s gaze as he begins the trek south. Morning breaking over the horizon, having walked through the night. Slipping across the land bridge, and taking on the world. Everything is starting to feel like freedom, without the cold sting of loneliness in his chest.

Moving through the aspen trees, he's on high alert. Every part of the man in tune with the world around him. It's getting to be summer here, warmth soaking the land. His thick coat leaves him a little less than pleased with the weather, but it doesn't matter much. Björn won't be long. Morning dew clinging to his coat, at least enough to fend off some of the heat for now. One foot in front of the other, much the same way he's getting on the whole hostile takeover thing.

The proximity of the Aspen Dam to the Hallows doesn't escape him either. For as much as Björn wants to run and tell his brother of his plans, he can't. Not yet. It's too soon, too early, and he doesn't want that kind of proximity to his father. With his sharp observation of the environment, the rot prince catches sight of something else. A girl, curled up in the soft grasses.

"Awfully early to be up and moving." Though he doesn't stop, Björn makes his call from a distance. Careful grey gaze shifting from the aspens to the girl. Interesting.

"Björn"

Her eyes were closed, soaking in the golden warmth of the sun as it blanketed her body. It was a beautiful day—the kind of day that felt almost magical. The air carried a crisp, refreshing sweetness, and the sky stretched endlessly above her, an unbroken expanse of clear blue. She tried her best to push away the dark, nagging thoughts about her situation, focusing instead on the small joys. The day was lovely, and for once, she hadn’t been scolded or reprimanded for several days in a row. That, at least, was something to be grateful for.

A sharp sound abruptly pulled her from her reverie. Her eyes fluttered open, and she froze, her breath hitching in her throat. Her gaze locked onto the figure in the distance, and she couldn't suppress her awe. Even from far away, it was clear—he was enormous. She blinked a few times, her eyes tracing the shape of his body. He was the first wolf she had seen since waking up on the shore days ago, and he was... unlike anything she had imagined.

Her attention was quickly drawn to his head, where a pair of horns jutted upward. Wolves here have horns? she thought, her curiosity flickering to life. Were they taken from a deer and somehow placed there? The thought was absurd, yet she found herself wanting to know. Were they real? What would they feel like under her touch?

His voice startled her, unfamiliar and deep, cutting through the quiet. It took her a moment to process what he had said, her mind lagging behind the sudden shift in focus. "But the weather is perfect," she replied softly, her voice almost timid. She hoped he couldn’t tell how nervous she felt, though it was likely written all over her. Her ears remained upright, twitching slightly in an attempt to appear calm, while her tail instinctively wrapped around her paws. Turning fully to face him, she met his gaze, though she kept her movements slow and deliberate. Inside, her heart raced, and she worked hard to steady her breathing. If he looked closely, though, he might see right through the fragile facade she was trying so hard to maintain.

""

code by Cloudy