The conversation with Druna had left me more shaken than I wanted to admit, especially as the season progressed and I remained ever more alone. Desire and fear curled in equal amounts in my belly, leaving me restless more nights than not, and erasing whatever ease I'd begun to regard my permanent prison with.

I couldn't forget what I'd learned about her. About what she was to Garmr. About what she meant to him.

Who was I to think that I might matter to him? I was a trophy, one he insisted on bringing back from each and every escape attempt purely out of his misplaced pride. Even when I thought back to my tear-stained, bloody confession, I had begun to wonder if his momentary tenderness had been out of guilt rather than affection. That would certainly fit with his continued absence from my life.

It made me sick to my stomach to know that despite all of this, there was a part of me that still craved his touch. A part of me that wanted to do nothing more than to grovel at his stupidly large hooves for a scrap of his attention.

But that part of me had been finally drowned out by the righteous indignation that came with meeting his companion.

I didn't bother with secrecy this time. I didn't wait for their guards to be down or for them to be distracted or for someone else to draw their attention. This time, I walked out like I was meant to do so, my head held high and my steps placed with borrowed confidence. It wasn't until I had crossed the Lagoon's border that I decided where I was going to go, and even though, doubt nagged at my mind as I slid into the surf, Salem outlined ahead of me.

I'd only heard stories of this land, but the stories of it made my heart ache for home. Salem was supposed to be a land of sun and wind and sand. Of rugged rocks and sturdy cacti. Of pain and promise and hardiness. The land of my people, even if I had no people to call my own here.

Bedraggled and wet, I pulled myself ashore and let my heart drink it's fill of the rolling dunes spread out before me. I shook off, letting the droplets of spray dampen the shore, and then began to step inland, nostrils spread wide to take in the scent of this wild new place.