cleared the notif to fast and almost forgot :'0 sorry for the delay!
the raven finds her fast. its call carries strangely through the red-gold wood, rough enough to catch against the soft fall of flowers. fa'liya stops beneath a curtain of wisteria, one forepaw lifted, black-tipped ears turning toward the sound. ravens were hardly uncommon, but few things must be uncommon to become meaningful. repetition is often enough. insistence, more so. this one seems to be third; insistent as it calls again from somewhere ahead.the forest here is not sun clan's, but their borders lie near enough that scents remain familiar. she has strayed from them deliberately, following a narrow game path that bends where the pack’s trails do not. privacy is easier found where no one expects her to be useful. so, too, are the little silences in which she can stop and breathe without another set of eyes measuring the effort. the wheeze in her lungs has been surprisingly mild this morning, and still she waits until the tightness passes before moving again.
the raven croaks a third time, and to that fa’liya finally looks up.
nyke rȳbagon ao,she murmurs, though she does not yet know whether she speaks to bird or spirit. gold spills over her back when she passes beneath the next break in the branches. the flowers make the wood feel warmer than it is, their colors softening every stone and root until even the shadows seem bruised pink rather than black. somewhere ahead, wings beat once against the air. a male voice follows, shaped around words she does not understand. the cadence is sharp enough to make meaning unnecessary. irritation travels easily between tongues.
fa’liya slows again, her head lowering until her spine becomes a small, cautious line beneath the hanging blossoms. the scent reaches her then: wolven and unfamiliar, touched by distance and open air. not one of theirs, and yet not close enough to the border to be called an intrusion. close enough that ignorance would be a poor excuse if he wandered nearer. she turns from the game path and follows the scent at an angle, moving neither toward him nor away. the raven gives one low, satisfied click from above.