Homecoming [ANY]

[Circinae]

oh, my love, don't forsake me. take what the water gave me ..

What is she so afraid of? Circinae is home, standing unusually still right inside the boundary lines of Taiga, and she can’t seem to move any further. At first, she reasoned it was the boys. They would be bored, get lost, anything could happen - so she’d left them with the best caregivers in Beqanna and tried once more to go back. She’d gotten as far as this point and then … she’d stopped. Just quit walking and instead took up staring into the winding, shaded forest that had once been such a comfort to her. Now? It seemed dark, imposing, unwelcoming.
 
The little two-toned mare knows what it is, but her heart twists the thought and breaks it apart before she can dwell too long upon it. Lingering had never done her any good, ever, so she brushes the fear away and swallows her hesitation, breathing deeply to fill her lungs before closing her eyes and shifting.
 
The nimble brown wolf is not so afraid. In fact, she’s bold, something near to blind in her excitement as she leaps ahead to blur past the towering redwoods and their less-ornate cousins. The memories return, unbidden and overwhelming but she drinks them, raises her head to the shrouded sky, and inhales all of the things she had missed so much during her time away. There isn’t even a need to look at her direction, the way is known from having run these trails thousands of times over.
 
When she reaches the clearing where the ground has been worn down through the years of gatherings she stops, tail curling happily above her hips while her tongue lolls from the side of her toothy mouth. A yip, and then a high-pitched note of distinction that wavers above the treetops and floods each corner of their woods. Happy, healthy, and whole, the little water wolf has finally made her way back to her beginnings.

Circinae