When they had returned together, she had made herself a simple promise: she would take every change in stride. She understood it'd be difficult not too ponder the what ifs of the past but it would be even more rewarding to consider the what ifs of now instead. After all, they had been gone for years, far longer than she had ever expected, and she knew they'd be returning to a place just as foreign as every other place they had been on their travels. The mountains looked the same, the rivers flowed the same, but that was where familiarity ended. It was almost exciting but she did not hide her nervousness - instead, she did her best to embrace it.

Before they began to explore the new facts about Moladion, she had taken it upon herself to visit a place she had always been fascinated by as a child; a free land squeezed in between the home of her bloodline and the mountains of old. The river ran slower in the summer, its surface smooth and clear as she waded in until it lapped at her undersides. The sun sat at its highest and she lingered in the water beneath the shade of the pine trees that littered the southern region of Aplos.

It was relaxing there in the water and she sighed in relief as she drifted out of the shade and into the sun; she simply basked in it then as she listened to the peculiar cries and calls from all the packs and free lands of Moladion. She had been right, after all. There had been much change - so much that she hadn't even tried to imagine it yet - but it was, at least, the same river she had always known.