[open] its all up in the air and we stand still

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you The redwood in front of him is impressively large, but it is not the tree itself that has captured Gale’s attention. A small squirrel is climbing up the thick ridges of bark, but it is the very oddest squirrel that Gale has ever seen. Instead of soft fur, there are pine needles and soft lichen growing along its back, and Gale is very sure that’s a small pinecone midway down its tail. The squirrel disappears around the otherside of the tree before he can get a closer look, and rather than alter his sight to peer through the tree, Gale instead recalls his original purpose in coming to the edge of the redwood forest. He has family living here, family that he has never met. Before the Darkness, he’d always planned to come here, but time had never been on his side. Now that he knows it is ticking down, he has seized the opportunity that the light’s return has given him, and come to Taiga. Gale had arrived on foot, and the white feathered wings that he most often wears are nowhere to be seen. They are an extension of his shifting, and today Gale has chosen to not use magic. That includes searching out the body heat of any approaching horses, he reminds himself, and settles down to graze on the grass and ferns that grow thickly at the base of many of the large trees. @[Yanhua] @[anyone]