Back to the beginning of the end.

What brought my thick paws back to this place was unknown to me. It was in this hellhole that I felt my family splinter. A crack so sudden, so large, that it my mind it had a resounding BOOM associated with it. Strange how memories could insert themselves so suddenly. How one’s view could change their perception of a memory, add detail. I’m certain there was no sound to indicate the ending except perhaps the cry of my mother as Blackthorne swooped in, threatening, or the feel of teeth against my neck as the silver lady held me down. Lady was too kind of a word but I wasn’t sure somedays whether to hate her too because I had seen how the Darkbringer had demanded things from around him.

Was it fear that had kept them hostages? Loyalty? It was a bitter taste in my mouth, a venom that spewed from me, a poison I kept ingesting. I hated him. I admired him. Maybe I would have stuck around him had he not threatened to hurt my family or Whisper. Then he had gone and disappeared. Zap, gone, a wraith, and in his place a new Queen had risen. I had not set foot here in many, many moons, nor even in my old home of Asteraia.

Yet something about the moors calls me, sings to me, screams at me. It is in my blood. Mother told me that I looked like Aithne. My body was broad, my jaws wide and crushing when I chose. I had her emerald eyes but with two signature red markings around my pupils. I was large now, my fur thick and coarse in some areas, soft in others. My face was set in a stern manner, suspicious of the world. I had left, returned, left, and now I was back in Molodian. I would seek out my parents soon, I think. Apologize. My sister too for Idrisa had always wanted to be a part of life with me but something cold had taken root in my stay here, a protégé of Blackthorne.

The moment I reach the marked border I stop, fur standing on end as I stare into the cold pits of Iromar. The smell is dampened in the cold yet the world looks exactly as it had once been. Uninviting, a dangerous pit of vipers. Lucky for me, I was an asp.

After a moment with the dull rays of cloudy sunlight illuminating the less than grand picture I make a short call for whoever might answer.