Själ

It was a particularly foul night, and the princess found herself in a particularly foul mood. The wind whipped angrily through her mane, tossing about the parcel wrapped around her neck with a vine. The package was wrapped heavily in leaves from the southlands, which were fashioned into a makeshift sling and padded with moss for warmth and protection. The girl tucked her head against her chest, holding her precious cargo to her breast as she pressed through the deepening snow.

She had intended to return to the Aurora Basin, having wandered Helovia for some time and failing to find anywhere she felt she belonged. She had not intended to get caught up in the worst storm she had ever seen, blinded by the raging snow and deafened by the roaring wind. The girl was angry, but it was an anger born of fear - fear that she would never find her way to shelter, that she - or worse, her darling egg - would freeze to death in the blizzard, buried under snowdrifts and never discovered until spring.

Before nightfall, the girl had been traveling steadily north, nearing the borders of the Aurora Basin. She knew that she would arrive after dark, but she had not accounted for the weather. Every step had become a struggle, but she merely ground her teeth against one another and soldiered on, pressing through the wind and ice, plunging through drifts up to her stomach, holding onto the egg for dear life and hoping - praying - that she would find some manner of shelter.

When she heard the first notes of a song, she thought that perhaps her noncommittal prayers had somehow been answered (but how, when she didn't even know who she was praying to?). She pressed on, falling when she flailed into a drift that came up over her head, panicking as the snow began to swallow her, to pull her under; but she leaped frantically forward, found her footing, and stumbled miraculously into the stone of a mountainside. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you, gods, whoever you are! She floundered up the cliff's face, pressed to the stone on her left, terrified of the blank space to her right, filled with nothing but swirling snow and gusting wind. Before long, she found her way into the cave.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, but she was shivering so much that it came out more like, "O-o-o-oh!" She could not feel her legs, so cold was she, and, grasping her blanketed egg to her with fear written on her face, she continued: "I'm (s-s-s-)so sorry, I (g-g-g-)got lost and it's (s-s-s-)storming and (p-p-p-)pleasedon'tmakemeleave."

"Talk."

Tag :: @[Ashamin]
Words :: 436
Setting :: In the Aurora Basin Haruspex's cave, stumbled upon accidentally on the night of a massive winter storm.
Notes :: Carrying a griffin egg in a sling made of leaves and vines from the south.
Jen said that I could join in, and that Ashamin would be happy to accept Själ into the Aurora Basin in this thread! <3