They'd come back! Nalda still couldn't believe it, both Koda and Iopah had disappeared, like it seemed all grown-ups were bound to do; Only, they'd come back! Long ago, probably not long after her father vanished, the girl had come to terms with the fact that adult presences in her life were transient, at one point they would all disappear. But the coming back? That she hadn't anticipated. And maybe it wasn't so much the return itself that bothered her, but the implications: If they could come back, why hadn't they? Why were the Reinier's back among the Timbers, when those who'd gone before weren't?

These were the thoughts that preoccupied the former Zamora as she travelled out into the woods each day, eager to get away from the pack that meant so little to her now. She'd go exploring, taking up her old habits, not so much out of the old curiosity as simply the need to escape. She wondered sometimes, about going down to the Bend, she hadn't been back since meeting Kyna on the hill, but she knew it was there, waiting. Part of her felt like she belonged there, she had family there, but she was hesitant, what was to keep them from disappearing too? She should know by now that family meant nothing, at least back in the Pines she had Arion and Eirian; SOME comfort..!

Mind clouded by thoughts, she walked without direction and without focusing particularly on her surroundings. She'd taken the route south so many times – usually giving up halfway – that it fell natural to her legs. Still, she somehow managed to drift further east than normally, looking up suddenly to find her path blocked by towering red rocks. The Hills? She hadn't explored those expanses since she was very small. And, as if an invitation, she noticed a crack further ahead, an opening in the russet cliffs, luring her in with a strange glimmer of red.