The air hums with the quiescence of a weary summer morn, ashes embraces by the listless breeze that left them momentarily airborne; there are birds crouched on tree limbs, their song petty, their fluttering frames viewed by none but the lone figure sashaying below. This forlorn creature was one who wandered about the dark grounds just in front of the scent markers with a wistful silence, dragging along her dainty paws knowingly, as if she recognized a face beneath her digits; after a few moments, the wanderlust dissipates from her scarred breast, and the brown wolf halts, drowsily blinking intelligent auburn eyes with the aged eyelid-drop of a worn traveler. 
Euphrosyne looks about mutely, drawing her paw pads along the ash, a minute smile curling up her lips at the familiar feel; almost akin to the sands of time, filtering betwixt toes that could not grasp them, spilling their brimful onto the shadowy floor to display how life hastened along on even the slowest of days..
The lingering apathy disappears abruptly and, blinking thrice until no seriousness lingered in her windows, the mud-colored female allowed bottled up happiness implode. She leaps about, auburn orbs stretched open wide in wild euphoria, tongue lolling as some manner of silent mirth oozed from her gaping jaws; her tail soared, in jubilance not dominance, and in quick successions joyful barks poured from her smiling lips. This was her home, stretching out before her, faraway and yet so close, near and yet so far! Euphie darts to the border, shock of a tail caught in the side to side throes of her happiness, dirt-colored eyes bright with newfound intellect and the same old contentment. 
The memories returned rapidly, grabbing at her heart strings and tugging whence they found them. The most prominent reminiscent was her romp through the river with a crimson-colored male, whose eyes were the color of a electric sea in the midst of a storm; Euphie remembers him in painstaking detail, as she has for the past couple of months and, yet, she cannot recall his name. 
Oh scarlet stranger, won't you harken to my call? I remember your countenance, but not your name!
There is no patience, and her skin crawls with wontedness as she summons that fragmented image, smiling broadly as the flashback of the river replays. 
She was running, fast, fast, and she could faintly hear him trailing after. Parched by the days of traveling and coated in dense ash, she had halted by the river's bank to drink before leaping into the cool depths. The sunlight filtered in between the gentle waves, awarding the water a striking concoction of gold and sparkling blue.. Aware that her companion might become worried of her drowning, Euphrosyne pushes herself to the surface with easy strokes, emerging with a breathless, blissful gasp. From her place of reverie, suspended with ease in the cool liquid, she gazes upon her approaching companion; he is moving at a surprisingly quick pace for one of his considerable size, but the grace of the crimson blur is shattered as he launches himself alongside Euphrosyne in the watery abyss. 
He does not emerge immediately, and leaves the sepia female to momentarily wonder of his condition, glancing about herself in concern. Had a river sleuth grabbed him when he submerged, stealing him away to be devoured?
This childish thought flees as two hefty paws press against her slight shoulders, and a voice murmurs into her ear,
"Boo."
Outside of her memories, a slight shiver racks Euphie's frame as she recalls his voice, the entirety of his kind smile and the furrow of his brow as he glimpsed her discomfort. After he had near scared her witless, she had crawled from the water with wicked thoughts of vengeance.. She had thrown herself with little thought back into the water, resurfacing heartbeats later reclining on his back. She had managed to wrap her arms in akimbo fashion about his neck, fastening her fangs playfully about his ear in an affectionate nip; this seemed to awaken a youth inside the crimson companion, and he had hauled himself from the water, with her hanging on like a frightened baby opossum. From there, he had managed to flip her from his back onto the waiting ground, growling in a bantering tone,
"Gotcha."
She remembered looking up at him, staring fiercely into his bright stargazers, and wanted so badly to say,
"Now, you are my best friend!"
Alas, something had prevented those words. She had choked on them, and could manage only a humiliated smile as she wriggled free of his grasp. With no farewell, she had disappeared, fading like the ash on the wind and carried far by the breeze. 
"Good-bye, Rio."
With a grimace, Euphie remembered his name, and the words she wished she had uttered. Ah, if only she could see him, and if only they could continue in their endeavors! But, he would most likely not be the one to greet her, nor would he probably remember her..
For the second time in her existence, Euphrosyne was truly troubled. She wanted to see him again, wanted to look upon him and gauge his expression to his feeling. Frowning, the mud-haired girl curled into a prone ball, laying her head on her paws and looking to the distant horizon..
Hoping.