Coming to Blossom Forest had been supposed to make her life easier, was supposed to keep them all safe, was supposed to be a new home for them. So far, Blossom Forest had really failed them. Life had been harder, not easier - they were in a new land, with new rules, where the rainbows were not things that were rejoiced, but were instead oddities, things that people had never seen before and thus were things that they either wanted to hoard or destroy. And now they were stuck, living in a pack that belonged to the new, untrained Tempests, surrounded by vampires - they were too scared to leave the pack without protection - or at least, most of them were. And why shouldn’t they be? Many of them had already fallen, murdered and sucked dry by the red-eyed demons. The Tempests were supposed to protect them from the vampires, but they hadn’t, not like they should have. It was not that Zawyne blamed them – least of all Adara. It was just that there were simply so many fewer Tempests here than there had been at home in their kingdom - here, a rainbow was lucky if they had one Tempest, whereas at home they would have two, three, four, five. And on top of those bonded by magic, they would have other, mortal guards to watch over them, just like Losa had Hurricane. This world was simply completely unprepared for them. And ask for it being a new home for them? Home was where family was - and given that her parents were dead, murdered… many of her friends were lost forever, stuck under Duma‘s tyrannical paws... this wasn’t home, it was a containment camp, meant to keep them all in one spot. All Zawyne wanted was for the Tempests to lead an attack to her homeland, to overthrow Duma… But because of the rainbows being here, they first had to deal with the hoards of vampires that had been bred and created, and after that war, or rather, this war seeing as it was likely to be starting soon, their numbers would probably be decimated. There were few adult Tempests, and only a few more teenager Tempests – and Zawyne had no way of knowing what the current number of vampires was. Who knew how long it would take for them to regrow, to rebuild. It was true that Tempests could breed out of season, but that still would not shorten the amount of time it would take for the pups to grow into teens, nor for the teens to turn into adults… and Zawyne was just starting to realize now that she would never get to go home again. And all of it had been a pipe dream, and until Duma died, and the threat that he portrayed to Losa died with him, they would have to remain here. Perhaps there was hope for the next generation, or the one after that, but not hers and Losa’s.

But beyond all that, beyond the failed hopes that Blossom Forest had dropped, it had brought about a change in her, a change in Losa even. Always had the sunrise princess thought that her older sister was perfect, and it had always been Losa who Zawyne always strived to become. But lost on her until recently was the fact that they were not so far apart in age, one breedings worth only – now instead of looking up to Zawyne, she found herself looking more straight at her. And, although they were sisters, they were quite different from one another. Yes, they both had fiery attitude, the strength of their willpower… And that would never change nor leave either of them. But where Losa had turned her willpower into aggression, and into threats, Zawyne turned it into something else - unending love. That love was not choicey – it was not contained for only her family, her sister, her friends, but instead was of the most selfless sort – a love that was meant to be shared with the entirety of the world. For so long, Zawyne thought there had been one way - Losa‘s way - to deal with conflict, and that was to meet it head on with even more conflict. But as members of the Arcus Irae, they could never hope to win in a fight. They could never hope to take on a fully trained warrior, nor likely even a warrior’s apprentice still in training. True, they had some in their group who were trained specifically in self-defense, but that was only to serve them the skills to get away from whatever threat was at hand until a Tempest could save them, protect them. And so Zawyne was nature’s balance for Losa - she would instead try to end the fighting instead of adding to it. And it had only been recently that she realized that this was her way, her calling. Up in the mountains, to the south of Dierne Hrof, there had been a brawl between an ebony titan and a Tempest over the life of a little pup. It was so odd to think of Qiturah as a pup considering just weeks ago, Zawyne have been one as well. But there it was, that was the truth of it. When Zawyne had arrived, her voice of been meek and mild, drowned out by the clash of battle, and she at last had put enough power into her voice to be heard above it all, and had demand it a cease-fire… And to her surprise, they had listened. No more blood was shed on that day, and so, it was a good day… A single memory that she could hold on to in order to hope for a better tomorrow, or perhaps even a better today.

And speaking of today, she was apparently not one of those rainbows who did as she should - once again, just like with that day on the mountains, she had wandered outside of Dierne Hrof without any protection. But mainly, it was because there was no protection to be had. The Tempests had amassed their forces with the plan of striking the heart of the vampire force in Caidir Olc, and now most of the rainbows were now without any protection at all. It was dangerous for her - she learned that the other day. There were not just vampires in this world seeking to harm them, but they were other things too, other wolves who would not know about them, who would seek to keep them for themselves. But she needed some space, some freedom. So she had followed one of the many tributaries that lead from Dierne Hrof‘s lake down into the wilderness, heading south. It had not been an intentional choice, but as soon as she started walking upon the rocky shore, she realized why she had chosen this path. And as the sun broke over the surrounding cliffs, its great ball of fire matching the one painted upon the side of her chest, her heart spot, she remembered - this was the place where at last, the rainbows had all made their reunion. They had, all of them, been scared, terrified really of what this new world would bring. Yes, reuniting with one another had brought each of them a sense of calm and peace - going through the portal had separated them which was something they had not expected. Merely finding one another was something. But back then, there still had been more of them alive for it had been before the death Vera and Fallon. More than that… It had been before Noctis had left.

As if conjured up by her memory, his scent crossed her nares. She shook her head - it was a cruel trick for her mind to play, placing him back there. He had been her guardian, her friend, but then he had left without a word nor without an explanation, right when she needed him the most. But even after she shook her head, the scent prevailed and continue to plague her… And when her gaze shifted down, she saw large paw prints on the trail in front of her, barely visible due to the fact that the majority of the ground was covered in rocks and boulders. But any place that was salt or sand, there were paw steps. Zawyne trembled, and raised her miss-matched visionaries until they laid upon him - they actually laid upon his body.

“… Noctis? How can it… How can this be?”

⁂Here^I_{am a}Commoner⁂Teen⁂