Summer. The years were just coming and going these days, weren’t they? Mariael felt as if it had only been yesterday she and the herd had occupied the small chain of caves near the hot springs, huddled together throughout the worst of the winter. Yet here, now, they stood with the best weather their northern island could hope for, fattening up in preparation for the next turn of the season and the snowfalls yet to come.
She should be proud at the size the Bay herd had grown to over the last year, but something still felt empty. Mariael knew it was the absence of her father, who’d been such an integral part of her childhood and the Bay’s leadership, but she tried not to dwell on it for too long. Nephilim would never return, after all, and so this was how the Bay was to be. She would keep every member among her herd safe to her greatest ability and would never again allow such a tragedy to fall to those beneath her careful watch.
Unlike last year, there hadn’t been much leaving the Bay for Mariael. Not that there was any reason to stay – and she had decided she would finally travel to other islands with the turning of the season – but every time she wandered to the coastline she felt… Disinterest. Was it possible to feel homesick when one hadn’t even left yet? For Mariael was sure that was what she felt when she thought of swimming away from Tinuvel – the yearning pull to huddle back in her trees among the herd, tucked against her sister while knowing these things would never leave her.
These thoughts made her snort a heavy, hard exhale of breath, tossing her head in irritation at herself. When had she grown so cautious? These were not the traits of a decent leader! How could she expect her herd to grow if she, their Queen, isolated herself among their home? Mariael stomped the ground firmly beneath her front right hoof, deciding then and there before the week was out, she would leave Tinuvel to visit another island.
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