It had been many years since she had strayed from Moladion's borders; so long, in fact, that she had lost count somewhere along the way. It seemed folly to count the days when they had never really mattered - time was frivolous, a distraction like no other. It made fools of all of those that focused upon the rise and fall of the moon and sun and so, she had dismissed it. She had paid it no heed as she ventured from the great peaks to the flattest plains; she scrambled through crevices and sunk in the great wet bogs of the coast. She had roamed until her legs had grown tall and her puppy fat had melted away into the wind and then, she had roamed some more.

She had never understood what drove her. One day, she had simply wanted an out. Perhaps she had felt some great undertow in the mists of her homeland or perhaps the blood of her ancestors insisted she seek somewhere to conquer for herself. Only, she had never been a conqueror. Eventually, her blood sang for her to return home. It sang for a mother long since gone and a father buried beneath the bogs of the very place he had ruled; it called for a brother deceased a sister missing; it sang for a brother gone, strung between his own past and his love for another. Yet, she did not know these things. In her mind, things had become a still image. She thought of her mother and father, thought of their time together, fondly.

At least she had never been too attached to the world around her. Things changed, that she knew, and she had long since surpassed the need to connect.

Like a dark mist, she seemed to drift across the valley and into the woods. She moved with utmost grace, perfected strides and wide, curious eyes; she seemed to float, her very paws merely grazing the loam as she moved. As she moved, she did not think of her family but rather, she focused on the moment she was in. Her head swiveled and tilted about, her jaw slackening as she watched up at the canopy and down at the dirt with the same curiosity of a child. She breathed in the scent with a drawn in breath, loud and unashamed before she sighed a groan of relief.

The sun had only begun to rise when she had arrived in a fine clearing; the shadows grew long and deep across the cleared area and she bathed for a moment in the golden light beams that cut through the trees above and then, with a flick of her tail, she leapt atop one of the nearby stones. She perched herself atop it, balanced as her nose pointed up into the sky with another huff - she tasted the air now, her brows furrowed at a lack of recognition. Even here, she had quickly discerned that things had changed. She had only to learn of what change had truly taken place in her absence.