MOST HAVE LEARNED

THAT THOSE WHO PLAY WITH FIRE

SPEND THEIR LIVES ICING BURNS

It had been unfortunate that she’d been forced to return to Diveen after her visit to Taviora. It meant she had to start fresh, the smell of her pack all too evident on her fur. In the aftermath of her lesson with Amutaq she had become hyper aware of her scent, frequently stretching her neck around to sniff at her hide. There was no way she could just go walking into Iromar smelling like that. So she had spent three days living at Aplos Riverside. Every morning when she woke she bathed herself in the river, then rolled in the plants that grew along the river bank. She had found a small patch of wildflower growing under a copse of trees and rolled in those once her fur had completely dried. Each day Diveen’s scent seemed to fade more. So she continued the process each day.

On the final morning she decided to roll in some mud along the riverbank before bathing, then repeating her ritual of rolling in the riverside plants and the wildflowers. She bent her neck around, sniffing her sides, even reaching between her front legs and sniffing there as well. There wasn’t so much as a speck of Diveen left on her. A wide smile broke across Dessa’s features and she trotted around happily, parading her stray-smelling pelt to, well, no one at all.

She continued her trotting, but began to make her way towards the Iromarian border. It would only make sense for a wolf that had been living along the riverside to approach from the north, and so she didn’t stray inland whatsoever. In fact, she stuck to the edge of the riverbank, slowly letting her trot transform from the happy parading to a simple, fluid gait.

Being a rather unknown wolf, she hadn’t done anything to mask her appearance. No one knew Dessa, other than her family and pack and Amutaq. Except Malum. She wondered if she might find him today, get to visit with him again. Maybe he would be impressed with her ability to veil her scent. Or even better, maybe he would think she was brave enough to leave her pack behind and strike out on her own.

When she came upon the border, she paced back and forth a few times, debating if what she had come here to do was really a good idea. What if she couldn’t find Malum right away? The chances of being discovered by another Iromar wolf were pretty high. For a while, she toed the border, unsure of what to do. But then her resilience returned to her, and she crossed into the lands so long forbidden to her. She wasn’t sure what it was about this place that drove her to indulge in such recidivism; it was like the swampy lands drew her in like a magnet.

Keeping to the river, she proceeded forward at a walk, the bounce completely lost from her step. She didn’t wander too far into the pack lands, but she had progressed far enough that the river had become boggier and the soil had grown soft under her paws. What a peculiar place, indeed.

Dessa

three | maddox x elowen | diveen