It wasn’t easy hiding on the island at the edge of the world. There were days that the rain swept in, soaking everything, and the ocean slammed inward, threatening to takeover everything. Long ago Natiya had grown tired of the taste of fish. It had occurred to her just a season or so past that the world had forgotten about her existence. The wolves of Glorall rarely ever ventured into the ocean to visit this strip of land. There wasn’t much here that was of value anyways. No game, save a few seagulls that patrolled the strips of beach carelessly. A few times she had managed to catch those, groaning at the taste of bird after so much time spent on fish. She had been sure in the beginning that Eden had known she was there. Then time passed and he never came to bother her so she assumed he had forgotten her too.

It was strange to be the forgotten. Was it really any different than before? When she had been beside her brother for years, hadn’t she always been in his shadow, forgotten? It looked like he had forgotten her too.

She ran when he left, for she was set adrift, unsure what life held. What to do. Then she kept running when he returned because she feared his wrath at her not having tried to seek him out. Finally, she had hid, and here she was. Alone. Lonely. Forgotten. Sometimes she stared at the ocean and thought…. What if she walked into it? Would she swim or would she sink? Would she end up on the beach anyways, bones picked clean by the seagulls she feasted on? Or the fish she so detested?

Another spring came, another birthday, and she had had enough. She stood, stretching her thin figure out, tail high in the air while her front legs lay almost on the ground. A determined slant of her pale blue eyes. A twist to her silver and black speckled lips, one small fang peeking out at her intense focus. Her left paw lifts, white toes tinkling sand, and she begins to leave the island at last. The tide is low enough that the sand bridge between her and the mainland is easy to traverse, and she slinks stiffly, her body screaming for her to run, her mind telling her not to draw undue attention.

Natiya has always been slender, with long legs and wide eyes. She is even more so now, skin sticking to her ribs, her hips caved in awkwardly. Fish were not very fattening nor very filling and she had lost her appetite many moons ago. The heat of the high noon sun bears down her back. She should’ve left at night, she inwardly berates herself, but she assume daylight would seem less… intrusive? Like she was trying to sneak out?

Her pace quickens, as does her heartbeat, and she finally reaches the mainland. The stench of the pack hits her. Their scents crisscross everywhere and no doubt have sunk into the very earth itself. With a furtive glance around, she darts up the slight embankment, the sand giving way to fresh grass. Green shoots of spring that smell delicious. That smell like freedom.