- After nearly a month of travel, Astrona was feeling bone-deep exhaustion as the sun set, and a deep desire to be over with her journey with every rising sun. Every day the tigress moved further west, gathering dust and mud of new lands in her fur while she sweated under the leather of her traveling pack. Every night she cleaned her self and her guardian ribbons, bells, and rings before carefully displaying them above her head while she slept. It is very likely those symbols mean nothing to the inhabitants of these lands. Still, she displayed them with the care they deserved.
As much as she could, Astrona stuck to traveling alongside rivers. She heard water could be scarce in the far west and had no desire to test this. A foreigner like her could succumb to dehydration if she couldn't find a water source soon enough. As the climate changed, Astrona's fur started leaving her in clumps. She stopped multiple times a day to rake out her coat and free the stray hairs that were falling off to help keep her cool in the direct sunlight. Even though Astrona's home was more humid, the heat in the west was brutal and dry. As if it could take back the water she drank through her dry throat and mouth. Astrona began to travel more in the early hours of the morning and first few hours of dusk, sleeping in the dead of night and during the sun's highest point as it arced across the sky.
The creatures active during this part of the night were wild dogs and strange dog-lion creatures called 'hyenas'. Astrona found the wild dogs friendly enough. Some of them were clearly mixes, decent sized families looking for prey during the cooler hours of the day. Occasionally the dogs were a more identifiable group called painted dogs. They had large ears and long legs, and colored black and white spotted with the color of sand peeking through. The first few groups pestered her, trying to get a sense of her behavior. But soon enough, Astrona realized word of her was spreading faster than her travelling speed. Some of the painted dog packs were dozens in size, but they left her alone easily enough.
Hyenas, though. They were hostile. Their language sounded close to Astrona's own tongue, but she wasn't able to stick around to hear more. They tried to surround her, snapping at her tail and paws while making a chilling bark that sounded like cruel laughter. Astrona fled into the trees and had to wait until the hyena pack grew bored of her evasion.
A week after that encounter, Astrona ended the day among large cliffs and a huge expansive valley glowing shades of red and orange under the hot setting sun. Even though she had yet to meet any lions, Astrona sensed this was the valley she was meant to find. It was enormous.
All she has to do now is descend into the valley.
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