Herd life.

It had been so long since she had belonged anywhere. The feeling was foreign, abstract - and wholeheartedly welcome.

Though it took some getting used to, her recent brush the Earth God had changed her - magically, physically, mentally. She was healthier now - her thoughts descended into darkness less and less, her body became a beacon of health as the Falls' hidden valleys and nooks sheltered precious grass and food from snows, her magic became more and more vibrant.The weather that followed her around seemed to just be peaceful, pleasant - a cool spring afternoon, none too hot nor cold. Her coat reflected lazy clouds that drifted across the sky above - it did snow when the true-weather willed it, and Cirrus let it, though she shivered in her thin, desert skin and pelt, unused to the brutal cold (and she didn't quite believe anyone when they said this was a mild Frostfall).

It was time for her to socialise, to accept her surroundings and the souls who came with them - a herd was nothing, pointless, if one was still a stranger amongst the ranks. So Cirrus, filled with a sense of purpose that had been lacking for too long, went about searching for these herd mates, this family as Kaj would call it, with hopes and aims to eventually love them all, and be able to call them family and mean it.

The sound of the earth moving was enough to catch her attention, as she roamed her beautiful new home and rounded a bend in the woods, she came upon a scene she simply wasn't expecting. The mare, dappled as the clouds in the sky above, seemed to be summoning the plants of spring into this frozen tundra and weaving them into - what? A structure, a monument? Cirrus stood in silence for a moment, her reverie quiet as she let the seconds drip by like the thoughts in her head.

Brisa! she remembered suddenly, recalling the mare with twins by her side, all those years ago. A friendly note exited her throat as she stepped forward then, a smile upon her maw as she hoped the mare would recognise her. "Hey there!" she called as she approached, hoping her interruption wouldn't cause too much of a disruption.

Her gaze caught on the snow-covered kitsune then, and she paused for a heartbeat before continuing - companions were something Cirrus never knew how to take, not since losing her own, her soul, her Sitka.. But she was improved in the management of her grief now, less broken and more simply Cirrus, rather than a jealous, pained soul seeking to destroy any happiness left in the world. No, Cirrus was glad to see a bond in others now - for she knew just how precious, how wondrous, they were, and she was no longer selfish or foolish enough to think that just because she had lost hers, so too should everyone else lose theirs.

"Brisa, how are you? And who's your new friend?" she asked kindly, bowing her tiara, wondering in silent amusement if the mare would recognise her. A breeze, forever chilly as it came off the snowy peaks of the surrounding mountains, stirred the strands of her mane and tail, and the feathers that resided within them, as she awaited a response.

Cirrus the WindDancer