sky-limits

The canyon walls called down to Skara as she stared up at them in awe. She was still considered too young, and not allowed to climb the cliffs as others had done. They were up there now, harvesting kiem from nests perched on twigs and in niches of the rock. Skara did not mind this; she knew the veltayem would later, but everything in this world must eat. This was a law she learned early on in these deserts of Bothea, that lives are built upon the bones of others. Her father was nearly touching the sky with his long tail, scrabbling, matrah to reach a nearby root hanging from the sandy rock. Skara reached down to the head of her siune for support, clutching his fur tightly - not painfully - for comfort. Kanyo sat there, tongue lolled out with a happy grin. The siune pushed his head into Skara’s hand, panting softly. Skara was nervous for her father, yes, and Kanyo seemed to know this. But the older yevat had done this a million times. He would be alright. His hand grasped the root

The cave was dark, cold, and wet. As far as most caves go, it wasn't out of the ordinary. Nila was trotting through it, with her handler on her back. Britta, a smaller than normal Tomtar, dug her hands into Nila's ruff, hoping for some comfort. It was cold outside too - biting winds that howled and screamed at night, cutting their way through and stealing any warmth anyone managed to achieve. They had both seen the tree together as rider and rukaan, leaves wilting and twirling to the ground, graceful corpses of ballerinas. Yggdrasil was dying, life being sucked out of it from some source they could not identify. It had been difficult to see the World Tree sickened and in pain, bark peeling as they trotted past it. But now they were on the search for a solution, a cure. Britta’s tail flicked through the air anxiously as Nila took careful steps. The ground was pebbled and rough, slick with drippings from the stalactites overhead. They were on a quest to find information, anything really

When the hive began buzzing loudly, Niera pinned her ears back to her head. A few bees stung her flank, and she snorted wildly. That was when the stallion that had been previously threatening them started to gallop away, calling for someone - the two mares and the cougar? - to follow. Safety in numbers, her mother had always said. So she yelled for Heliria and the cougar to come with her as they fled the swarm, following the overo stallion as he ran. Bees followed them for a short bit, engaged in getting revenge for their stomped hive, but eventually stopped once they had all reached a lake. Panting, Heliria took stock of their situation. The two stallions stood in shallow water at the other end of the lake, eyeing their trio nervously. Niera had begun to patch up the cougar - dabbing leaves at her cuts to stop the bleeding, and soaking her own bee stings in the cooling waters. Heliria stepped closer to her lead mare, glancing nervously towards the stallions and murmuring lowly.