There was a darkness, and then a light.

Fúyáo awoke with a gasp among the swirling snow. She was in a forest not so dissimilar to her own, if she could even call it hers anymore. Had they followed her here? Shaking her fur of encrusted ice the Princess listened wearily for any sign of of persuit.

It was silent. It was quiet. It was growing dark and she was tired, but there - there among the trees up ahead flickered something unusual.

Forging beneath snow-laden branches, she came across a strange fire that burned as if it were Qīnglóng's breath. Its presence filled her with an unearthly warmth, like a pocket of spring had taken root and expelled the winter from a small patch of this land.

Fúyáo found the sensation difficult to resist, and soon enough she was reclining in its vicinity and letting her head rest heavily upon her paws. Surely she could afford some shut-eye beneath the protection of this spirit?

"Common" / "Mandarin"

skill: vagabond

Like a moth to a flame, Daiyu followed the light. She had been to this forest before. Once, and what seemed so very long ago from now. She had awaken to this foggy hollow filled with dark evergreen densely packed. It felt as oppressive and constructing as it had the first time. Yet her time here would not be long. Daiyu was merely passing through, moving with the group that would become the Tianlong Dynasty and would settle far from here. It was the light only which had broken her attention and cast her away from those she could come to call pack-mate.

When she arrived, it was unlike anything Daiyu had seen before. Only once in her life had she bore witness to a fire. Once, when lightning struck a tree and set it aflame during a violent storm. It was still burning when the rains had come to an end. Burning from the inside out. Her natal land was a temperate place, far from dry spells. This? It seemed almost magical. Perhaps it was.

Looking from a distance, it was awhile before she noticed someone sleeping near in the flora, soaking up the warmth. The smell of the fire had mostly overwhelmed her nose, but when her eyes finally shifted to the area around the flame, she took note of the other. Daiyu sat slowly and quietly, simply observing and made attempt not to disturb.