Be still, and then strike.

She remembered the way Rokig had gone about capturing the fish, and though these were smaller than the ones she'd seen on the island--they were still, in the end, fish. The girl peered down into Otter Creek, watching them. Hoping that, perhaps, she could catch one or two for her dinner.

It would be a long process. Even moving a muscle caused one or two of them to panic, which led to mass chaos and hasty exodus. She thought these fish would be less wary of predators than those by the ocean, but maybe not.

Or maybe she was just bad at fishing.

She was distracted, irritatingly enough, by the arrival of another, and she looked up with exasperation writ clearly over her face. The expression quickly faded to a sort of surprised joy, and she left the bank of the stream without another word, hobbling up to Moonshadow with a grin.

Out of everyone in Blackfeather Woods, she had come for Maegi. And although the sight of her still brought up memories she'd rather stay hidden, those wounds were nearly closed, now. She would not flee, this time. Her tail wagged as she drew to a halt, examining the scars upon the woman's face, the glint in her eyes so different from before.

"Moonshadow," Maegi murmured. "It's good to see you. I'm sorry--" She felt embarrassed, suddenly, remembering how she had ran like a coward, tail between her legs. "I'm sorry I ran from you, on the island. You just reminded me of. . .him. That's all."

"Home," she responded, grinning. "Yes." With Moonshadow here, it really did feel more like home. The home she had before the war, with everyone still here. For a moment, she could pretend that all was well. That all had been restored to normal, and a life with both Mou and her brothers was possible.

The jagged wound along Moonshadow's face brought her back to the world in which she now lived, and her heart sank. That hadn't been there, before.

"How are you?" Maegi asked quietly, gaze resting on the scar before returning to the woman's face as a whole. Her expression was nothing short of apologetic. Had she caused that? Had Skullchaser marred Moonshadow just as he had marred her?

Semi-vision. Maegi felt terrible for her, and Mou, too. Anyone who had to deal with the loss of such a vital sense, or at least part of it. The injury to her mouth had done nothing but barely alter her speech patterns, adding a slight lisp on certain words. But Moonshadow had paid dearly. She hoped it was not from Skullchaser. . .but she knew better than to think otherwise.

"I'm back," she said shortly, not really wanting to address her feelings. They were all over the place, anyhow--joy at being home, sorrow at leaving the island, weariness from adjusting to this new life. It would take hours to lay it all out. Her face grew sincere. "Thank you for saving me from that man. He. . .he would have killed me, had you not stepped in."

She did not mention that she had witnessed Skullchaser take her in the first place. What could a pup have done, anyway? They both would have ended up dead.

There was one question at the front of her mind, though. Something that, blinded by the desire for revenge, she hadn't considered before now. "Did you kill him?"

She shook her head. "It's okay," Maegi responded, kindness in her voice. "You saved my life--I owe you big time." It was a debt that could never be repaid, not unless Maegi helped Moonshadow out of her own near-death crisis. And for her sake, as well as Maegi's, she hoped that moment would not come--at least not soon.

"Why did you come for me, alone?" She remembered there had been another woman with the Blackfeather wolf, but she held no significance to Maegi then, and she hadn't caught sight or scent of her here. A fleeting recruit, no dout. "Why didn't Kove come? Nyx? Aries?" There was resentment under each punctuated question, the bitterness clear on her tongue.

"Not that I don't appreciate what you did," she added, "but why you? Why did no one else come for me?"

She snorted derisively, her face puckering up as if she'd sucked on a lemon (not that she would know what those were). "Best equipped," she repeated, shaking her head. "Whatever. Anyway. . .thanks. When I look at you, I still--"

Molag Bal.

Maegi shuddered, feeling his teeth on her cheek once more. "But it's getting better. I'm a lot better than I was, then. And I'm happy to be back. Have you--have you learned any more about the gods, since I've been away?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation toward a topic much more agreeable to her. It wasn't the woman's fault that Kove had refused to go after her, anyway.