CH Premonition

Level 01: (271) 271 - 54/53/53/57/54 (1y 0.5m)
Level 05: (299) 316 - 57/70/72/61/56 (1y 5.5m)
Level 10: (???) 411 - 71/101/103/70/66 (1y 10m)

--

She was born as a Seer into a pack off the shores of Red Ridge--a pack that escaped the tyranny of Red Ridge's conquests in the Era of Swiftflame despite its proximity. These wolves dwelled on an island where only strong swimmers could reach. Typically the wolves of the innerlands weren't keen on swimming and the sheer cliffs deterred many other wolves from attempting the swim at all, so the islanders had nothing to fear. There they enjoyed their paradise even as wolves starved and wars spilled blood just next door. Having escaped the wraith of Red Ridge's former Lykaon and forgotten by the current one, the wolves of Thistland had no worries.

Premonition's place was an obvious one. She was meant to read the wind and know things about the world. Many a time, a wolf would approach her--as some sort of a public figure--to ask how the day was to go. It was always nice. They reveled in her "revelations," but one night, Premonition woke to a rumble deep with the earth, so faint that she wasn't sure it even happened at first. A breeze from the innerlands brought acrid smells that seared the inside of her nose.

Though she had never smelled this particular thing before, she knew what it was from her rigorous nights of studying with her parents. "Thistland wolves!" she howled into the night, waking all of the wolves of the island. "Red Ridge's mountain will erupt soon." Her statement, matter of fact as it was, the wolves who had gathered before her seem to shrink in fear.

"What does it mean?" one asked.

Another said, "That's the innerland's problem."

Premonition huffed and stamped her paw on the speaking rock. "We have to be careful. The lava may reach our shores." She looked beyond them and the peak of Red Ridge wasn't so far away. Even as a respected Seer, the wolves could not help but laugh. The only thing Premonition had predicted thus far was that their days would be fine and their bellies full. It was difficult for even the truest believers to see lava reaching from the innerlands to their shore. "If it does, it could bring war for our wolves."

Although she realized that was a leap, Premonition... simply felt something.

--

When the days passed and stretched into weeks, the wolves had begun to lightheartedly taunt her. When is the volcano going to spew? Did it happen already? Maybe it was a pelican's fart you smelled. Premonition spent her days watching the mountain range for any signs that would make them believe. She could have sworn that the clouds clinging to the mountain were darker today than the day before. Perhaps it was ash spewing out?

Without being able to talk to the wolves of Thistland for fear of more jeering, Premonition simply laid about and sighed, unbecoming of a seer. Even her parents, who had long gone from the earth, might have been able to counsel her better.

"Are you so ready for war?" a wolf asked her a few days ago. That was what her prediction had meant to them.

--

The wolves of Thistland woke to the earth rumbling, shaking so hard that even the fruits in the tree were shaken loose. Loud booming crashes roared into the otherwise quiet day as the mountain's peak exploded outwards, lava racing down its face. They looked on in horror as the lava reached the ocean, turning it to steam in a hiss.

Premonition watched, filled with vindication, but could see that now was not the correct time to boast. The wolves were panicking, asking if the lava would truly reach their shores. If the tyrant of the innerlands would then come for them--though they had not known that he had been sick for years near the end of his life and could not mount an army against them, never mind that the wolves of Thistland's resources had been dwindling for some time now and had nothing of interest to the the Lykaon.

She shook her head. "I am not sure."

--

Red Ridge seemed to erupt for days, covering the entire mountain and most of the valley. Where the central seat of power had been was only spare by a single fur strand's width, but all of the wolves had fled somewhere unseeable by the wolves of Thistland. Even now, the lava still blobbed into the ocean, still hissing, causing the island to be engulfed in dense fog. So many dead fish had washed up onto their shore and the island reeked.

By the end of the week, a tendril of lava had touched their island, rejoining it with the innerlands, but it wasn't until Red Ridge stopped and the lava cooled that their horror could be fully realized. The innerland was here at their shore.

A seer wasn't meant to be a mystic thing. Just a weather foreteller. Someone to pass the time with and educate them. The wolves of Thistland saw this as an affront to them--that Premonition had made this happen somehow. In their rage, as the lava cooled enough to walk on, they forced her away and hoped that the breaking waves would wash away with new bridge that connected them to that army that Premonition had seemed to invite.

Premonition ran and ran and ran.

--

Running through unfamiliar air and smells, the world of the innerlands--which had visited once when her mother swam with her, clutching Premonition's scruff in her jaws as she paddled against the bobbing waves--was very different to her homeland. She looked back as some more steam covered the land bridge, the eyes of her chasers warning her off. They hesitated at the end of the lava as if stepping onto the innerlands by walking would open the floodgates of hell.

Breathing hard, Premonition snarled at them and kept going. Where would she go now?

What would happen to Thistland?