March 27th; Early afternoon; Clear; -17° F/-27° C

Taima was reluctant to leave Mirren; there was not doubt about that, but in the recent days since meeting him, she had become so curious about the part of Relic Lore he had led her to and just how close she had come to her old home. The place where she had been born.... Grizzly Hollow. Just thinking about it made all four of her feet itch and her recovering spirit spread its wings when she thought it had been broken. In taking her own advice, she left the young Tainn in the middle of the night, vowing to return to him if he ever called her back to him.

As quickly as her gangly limbs would allow she made her way through the banks of snow, traveling over it only when she was able to, given her half-starved light-weight frame. By the time the cedars towered over her, she stopped along the line of trees, closing her eyes to take in its scent and allow their shadows to overtake her in the form of rediscovered security. These century-old sentinels were her trees, and nothing would ever change that. Though, when she opened her eyes again, she realized that a sense of dread was slowly settling in her stomach... the realization that something had changed in her absence That something was wrong.

Though she could have ventured further into the forest that sheltered the old, abandoned bear den that was her true home, she kept still, frozen in place while she wondered if it was worth it to leave Mirren behind. She had left Renier and Ryvet and Calla and Trisden all behind once upon a time, she had even left Datura (if he had ever thought of returning home to the Pass one day), Mapplethorpe could have been at her back and she would have never regretted leaving him back at square one with Aponi and Nova to raise and groom. Now, she had left Mirren, and she was on the verge of bidding the Secret Woodlands goodbye, if only for a little while... just until she remembered who she truly was: Jaysyek and Borden's daughter, an heiress of Grizzly Hollow... but most importantly, by name, Taima Lyall.

She drew in a cool breath of air and held it in her lungs, staring at the lands in front of her before taking a leap of faith and bounding forward. To such a naive yearling, it would have seemed that nothing had changed... that her mother, father, and all her siblings, laid in the heart of these woods, just waiting for her to return to them. As fast as she could manage without making herself susceptible to stopping and gasping for air on an empty stomach, she ambled towards where she believed her home was, unknowingly heading in the direction of Cut Rock River, Maksim Baranski's territory.

Rabbit had only just started to somewhat remember where she was when someone called out to her by name... her real name. "Taima!" he had shouted and the young Lyall skid to a halt to assess her surroundings and pinpoint who it was and where he was coming from. Her head tilted to one side briefly as she rattled her memories for his voice. She replayed it back in his head like an old, broken record player might "Taima! Taima! ...Taima!" It made her wince and angrily stamp her paw into the snow after not being able to fully recall whose vocal chords pronounced her name in such a way and on that particular octave.

Willing to foolishly take a risk, she hollered back to him, "I'm he-ere!" Her lower jaw quivered, but as soon as she closed her mouth, she saw him. A splotch of dull bronze against the cedar-brown and pine-green. There was only one other wolf she knew who boasted a pelt of gold and copper: her prince and heir, Datura Aquila. Her brows knit together and as he came sauntering over to her, she shook her head in disbelief. It couldn't be... She sniffled twice as she took a step back when he had come just within meters of her.

"You," she merely whimpered, eyeing him with tearful eyes. The more she stared, the more the frost and winter air bit at her face, making a tear fall from her black-lined tear ducts. Datura came to stand beside her and she apprehensively turned to fully look at him, to measure him up and take in a deep breath as if taking in his smell would partially prove that he was indeed real. "You left me," she accused with a soft yelp, swallowing the inklings of anger that was inching up into her throat.

She could feel her imaginary pack staring at her, their gazes boring into the back of her head. "YOU IDIOT!" she cried, sobbing, fuming, and sniffling all at once as her fur anxiously bristled. Then, unable to contain herself, she leapt towards him, burying her face into his thick auburn fur and finding that he was indeed there. "The next time you go somewhere, you take me with you!" she sniveled, nuzzling her face into his neck and taking in the potpourri that told of his travels. "I-I waited," she murmured. "I waited so long for you and you never came back for me..."

Behind her, her tail was wagging, if only out of foolishness and the well-needed assurance of a familiar face. "Where did you go?" she stared into his face, the heartache painted all over her face as she tried to make sense of what and why he had shown up in the very first place he had met her... when she had been sprayed in the face by an agitated skunk. As much as she wanted to believe that he had possibly trailed her or simply remembered where she had lived, she couldn't help but ask out of worry and concern, "How did you find me?"

Long gone was the commonplace image of her golden prince and the man who stood before her now was much too still... too distressed, too mature? A small whimper left her nose as he explained to her that he had gone to Nomads Pass at first, then made his way to the Cedarwood by memory alone. Now that she was really listening to him, watching him, and paying attention to him, she noticed just what was off. In addition to the absent luster in his coat, the look on Datura Aquila's face seemed distant, as though he were thinking of something even before she had thrown her questions at him.

He should have quipped back at her in all his usual, princely ways. He should have even looked at her and shrugged at just how unladylike she was behaving. For his sake, she did her best to rein herself back in, to mentally take a step back and assess him. What she did manage to notice was just how he was looking at her; the scowl over his muzzle and eyes darkening his handsome face and forcing his ears forward and every other way.

"Wh-what?" she stammered, summoning every ounce of nerve she had left to keep herself from folding before him. You're here you said, and I can't believe you're here... What else could possibly be wrong? While Mapplethorpe had done well to educate her and even prepare her for the duties of parenthood alongside Datura, she had not been mentally receptive to such a duty. All she had wanted then, and most recently now since she had finally found her way back to familiar territory, was to rule; never had it even occurred to her that there was more than just 'growing into one's large ears and paws' and learning what it took to dominate inferior pack members.

Her ears lowered and her nose twitched, "Why... why're you looking at me like that?"

It seemed like ages when they stood there in silence with nothing but the winter air stirring around them. Then, all too soon, before she could even have the chance to draw close in attempt to console him, he was in her face, his nose roughly pressed up against his, "Whose this other guy you reek of, what's his name?!" She gasped, the fur at the back of her neck prickling while her tail lashed at the air behind her. "He's--" she started. "Tell me where he is!"

He turned about to survey the area, marching away and striding from one tree to another. When he came back again to face her, he full out tested her. "Did you give up on me, Taima?" As "Rabbit," she might have shrunk away and flattened herself into the snow, but now that she was back on what she considered as her own turf, she, Taima rose back up in the face of her gold-shrouded prince. Her own snout wrinkled and her tail came up in kind. "NO!" she spat, the fire in her chest at last rising up in the shadow of its former glory. "But so what if I had or hadn't? You're here."

The corners of her mouth twitched and, in all that was customary and expected of her, she stubbornly frowned back at him. "They're back where I left them," she clarified. "Besides, it was just my brother and--" she hastily threw this part in to hopefully ensure that he understood that she still held him in high regard, "some other guy. He's nice, but he doesn't even compare to you." All her offenses fell away as she fully considered what she had said. Yes, Mirren had been her knight in shining armor when she had needed him, but truth be told, Taima Enap Lyall, in all her girlish daydreams and imaginative play, was not meant to settle for anyone less than a prince.

"You stole my heart, Datura," she stated simply, her voice strained beneath her longing for him and the unexplainable, almost gravitational, pull that was drawing her closer to him. Her voice lowered but her ears came up out of mere curiosity in regards to his reaction, "I haven't been able to give it to anyone else. No matter how hard I've tried."