Too Soon
If you like music while you read, try "It Has Begun" by STARSET. It's what I listened to while writing this chapter!
*****
~ HARTH ~
It must have rained overnight. When they'd been back, closer to the valley where the gaps between the trees were larger and the wind reached the ground, the trail had been very faint. Harth had had to stop to cast around and find it again twice—once when the tigers had leaped straight up and over a boulder, and once when they'd found a creek and followed it for a minute.
Harth was frustrated by the slow start, but glad when the trail connected a deer trail, winding between rocks and trees as the ground began to climb into the foothills and overhung by the mountain's rocky sides above.
And suddenly the trail was stronger. Much fresher than she'd thought.
So fresh, Harth slowed, pausing to peer carefully around curves in the rocky mountainside before advancing.