Mazikeen returns to Hyaline on a grey afternoon, the day after she gives birth. She’d taken her time, lingering in Tephra and then resting as much as she could without delaying more. Though she is occasionally away from Hyaline for a few days at a time, she is wary about stretching her luck. On the trip back she does not waste energy flying and takes every chance she gets to bathe in winter-chilled waters to try to get the scent of the jungle kingdom off of her coat and mudding herself with spring damp soil in other lands. Taiga and Sylva and the forest, even the mountains that surround her home.
She hates this deception, and part of her wonders if it’s even worth it - but she has some of the instincts of a hunter and she is trying to lessen the chance that the Curse will be able to find them. She even tries to keep just the first image of the twins in her mind - that nondescript thicket where they had been born. Mazikeen has had her sight affected by Gale’s powers, he had used it to share the memory of the sun with her once, and she worries that he’ll be able to take memories from her the same way.
No, she’s not worried about Gale - she’s worried about the Curse doing that. She holds them both separately in her mind. She has to. And she thinks all this makes her prepared for what today will bring.
The sky is a hazy grey and there is some late snow falling around her as she arrives. Though she had crossed the mountains as a snow leopard she shifts back into herself now - no wings to conceal her sides or those healed puncture wounds, just her curved horns as decorations. Her natural self, as if this was just any other day. As if her heart wasn’t already racing at the prospect of what was to come. Fear and anticipation - she’s looking forward to ruining the Curse’s day.
She had a plan but, despite that anticipation, she knows this part isn’t going to be easy, and it will very likely turn ugly quick. It hasn’t occurred to her yet to skip over this and just go to the next part of her plan - she has not yet realized that could probably save both her and Gale some pain. Mazikeen had it in her head that she didn’t want to be gone for too long, didn’t want to raise suspicions, and she feels approximately one mountain’s weight lighter so she assumes it will be easy to tell that her condition has changed.
Mazikeen is feeling that blazing determination when she returns to her home, she feels as sure in her plan as she’s able to. She thinks about how even though it had been so dumb to make her promise when they barely knew each other, when she hadn't known anything about the Curse or what to expect, she’d do it again if given the choice. Gale wouldn’t want her to, so she’d be safe, but she’d go through it all again to have him and she’ll go through more to keep him.
And with that thought to fuel her determination a little more - there’s little point in delaying what’s to come. So pretending this is just any other day she does what she would’ve done if this was just any other trip outside of Hyaline - she goes to find Gale.
@[Gale]