He had come to get me, like I knew he would.

I half expected him to come tell me that it was time. Time to take back Iromar and when I had heard his soft approach I had felt a quickening in my blood and a sort of swoop of my stomach as if it had taken wings. My heart spluttered and I felt fear. It made my eyes smart as I gasped in a breath before quieting so he wouldn't hear me. I didn't want to go back there just yet. I feared it in a way I wasn't sure I could explain. All I could see were bright emerald eyes with a red circle around the oval staring up, up, up. Gone, empty, lost.

The freelands held bison, their lows heard in the distance, and each time I grew furious at the sound. Their memory evoked images of a black muzzle with gray and bloody spittle, of pain filled lavender eyes and a destructive weight on my chest. Except when I see the excited look on Halcyon's face I realize that he isn't here to take on my mother's killer. Asteraia. At first I don't understand what he tells me and it takes a moment to sink in with me staring blankly at him.

Asteraia has been given to him, his birth home and the home of his parents, and he was King and he wanted her to go with him. I remember blinking a few times in surprise before I nodded, dumbly, and then my tail began to wag and I felt as if breath could find my lungs once more. I had told Pine I couldn't go back to Iromar yet and it seemed I didn't have to. I had somewhere else to go. Elohim had made sure I was safe here but this place wasn't one I wanted to call home. I was hesitant here but wherever Halcyon was, I wouldn't be. "Yes, let's go!"

My voice is eager and also desperate as we begin the travel towards the plains. I falter as we near it, hearing the distant lows of bison and my ears flatten for a moment but then I ignore it. I can't abandon Halcyon, my guardian, and he now held a place that I would truly be safe. My heart tumble-stops as I look at him, the fierce pride evident on his face, and I smile happily as we step across the border. The horizon stretches out far ahead of us with few trees but I like it. It is different than where I am from, the air sweeter and cleaner, and I feel a sense of home. Maybe that, though, is the look that Halcyon gives me.