The crimson lass stretched her taut muscles, feeling her tendons groan like rope under heavy weight, pink tongue lazily slipping from its ivory cage as she filled her lungs with oxygen. Straightening again, Samus surveyed the landscape before her, emerald eyes as sharp as daggers, calculating and cold. Ah, yes. This was the territory she had once called home for quite an extended period of time. A dry smile rose to her lips at the memory of it all. Days upon endless days spent waiting for Queens’ return, only to enjoy a breath of excitement before plunging back into boredom. Of course there were others she could keep herself entertained with; she had come to know quite a few as friends, most of them acquaintances met at the borders, all equally cracked about the head and in desperate need of a moral compass, among other things. However, that could only provide so much for the huntress, a she-beast used to executing justice for a ripe reward and swiftly moving on to the next mission. So she had left. An unglamorous decision in some eyes, although the gazes of others had never been a significant consideration in her own mind. Yet she found her ebony nose once again inhaling the scent of the packlands, fur bristling slightly at the feel of the breeze and the dry leaves beneath her blood-stained talons. What should have been a joyous reunion was more like the relapse of a creature in rehab, unable to resist the pull of the drugs, coming back again and again because her very cells dictated it, craved it. Malignant Felicity was her needle, shiny and dripping its noxious contents, burying itself firmly within her flesh just out of reach with no hope of ripping it out. With a heavy sigh she stepped across the faint borders, feeling her blood begin to calm and boil at the same time.

For the amount of time she was away, Samus was surprised to find not much changed. The dominant perfume that decorated the borders indeed originated from an estrogen-laced creature, but it was not the regal who had reigned here when she was a permanent resident. Still, it held a tone of familiarity, a certain distinctive scent she could not stop rolling over and over in her skull, rattling it like a pebble about her brain. Someone she had met before? She’d be sure to investigate it fully later. The second musky stench that formed the scent barrier was none other than the eternal second-in-command, the black beast that he was. Good to know that boy was still around at least. Something to convince her to stay. Other than that the territory sat parched, hungry for life and the sacrifices it once regularly received back in the glory days. A few stranger scents wandered the topography, friend, foe, or ignorant fool she could not discern. Signs of recent habitation lay scattered about the landscape but Sammy was not interested in chasing rabbit trails just to have someone to shoot the shit with. Instead she took a brief self-guided tour of the packland, reorienting herself to the little details of the property and searching for a suitable place to repose.

She soon happened across a small grouping of mossy rocks, not an extremely unique find in the tropical environment of Malignant, but an interesting location nonetheless. Gracefully ascending the largest and tallest stone sculpture, Samus took one last hard look at the forest around her, drawing in a final breath before lowering to the surface below, the decision to stay finalized in the symbol of the movement. She would find herself some decent entertainment in this pack if it was the last thing she did. Her pose was casual, the intimidation of the environment not phasing the bounty hunter in the slightest, her rear limbs twisted to one side with her right hip taking the pressure of her lower half. Her primary stilts lay long and parallel before her rouge chest, neck lengthened but comfortable, muzzle pointed dead ahead, aligned perfectly with her spine. Gemstone spheres looked at everything but saw nothing as the deadly lady allowed her mind to wander, body still as death but cranium blindingly alive. Faint patches of sunlight fell soft across her pelt, bringing out the vermillion strands that sprouted from her skin. Her bones eased into the padded platform, finally receiving their dose, filling their addiction after all those months without.