I was big enough to go out on my own now, I decided. No one had stopped me. I had even paused at the edge of the border with my ears straining for the sound of my mothers scolding or the big paws of my father to come racing down the moors to snatch me up. Either they trusted me now or they didn't realize where I was. Who was I to question such things? My spirit was like fire, full of adventure and the need to prove myself strong. For one second I pause and think I should have asked brother to come with me. Then I shake it off and move on. My brother was strong too, in his own way, but I wanted to be unfettered today and our parents watched him like a hawk because he was slow at growing. I didn't worry - he would be as big as me one day. I trusted in this instinct, this sort of coddled understanding of the world.

At first I race away from Iromar. I stop after a few minutes of running, deciding I want to spend time learning the earth around me and for several minutes I sniff in a wide circle. The grass here is crunchy beneath my paws. It is almost hollow on the inside and not nearly as thick or soft as that of the moors. Must have something to do with the river, I think, because it is lined against the bank in thick brackets. A noise catches my attention and my green eyes, with a dark blue around my pupil, watch the flattened tail of a beaver as it moves around doing whatever the hell beavers do.

It doesn't take long before I become bored with this, moving further down the river and then splitting away from it and into a field. A hawk swoops low over me, its wings beating hard and driving my figure straight to the ground. Almost immediately I leap back up with a loud growl (that is not nearly as scary as my mothers!) and bark at it's retreating tail feathers. "I'll teach you to toy with me," I said, fur standing on end as I stare it down until it is a dot in the sky. I wish I could have snatched a feather to bring back to my brother as a souvenir but it was a fleeting thought and I am wandering once more, content to survey the world out of no other reason than curiosity.