she waits with measured impatience for maegi to return, occupying herself by learning the forest's particularities. a strange, foreboding place indeed, and yet reed finds it suits her. to be somewhere so different from undersea -- good. otherwise would invoke too many memories, and she has no time to carry nostalgia with her. 

instead: she catalogues the plant life she encounters, pleased by its surprising variety hidden under the gloom. however, maegi's howl pulls her quickly from the task. finally.

reed winds around the trees quickly toward the source of the call, her expression lighting up when she sees her friend. the somber look on her face makes her pause. raising an eyebrow, she says, "i hope there's a reason for your face that isn't my being here," though she can't quite make the haughtiness stick in her voice the way she wants to, too pleased by the reunion.

for a moment, reed wants to be offended, her neck bristling: but maegi's clarification puts things to rights, instead causing the red-flame woman to look away quickly. no, of course maegi would have no reason to know, would she, if she's been here? "well," reed begins, pausing to draw in a breath and look at her friend once more.

"undersea is no more. no one lives on the island now," she explains. "seelie and her family - i think they went to their homeland... i'm not sure where my brother or mother left to. i studied under a woman for a while, though i never learned her name, and i've been traveling alone for some time since." the further away from them she gets, the more her time spent with the witch feels like an odd dream, out of place with the rest of her history--she's eager to be done with all of that now. "but - how about you? what is this place?" she knows maegi is important, somehow, here; frankly, she looks so at home in the shadows its hard to even picture her in the sandy beaches of undersea now.

maegi's reaction makes some small part of her want to bristle further; what right does she have to feel about it when she left? but--no, her own complicated feelings about undersea are not maegi's fault. reed steels her shoulders, more than a little glad to be past the subject when maegi explains where they are.

blackfeather woods, huh. again, she is struck by how right maegi seems here--makes sense, if this is her birthhome. she grins, insatiably curious to know all about it. still, this doesn't seem the time for that conversation when there are still puzzle pieces missing. "i'm glad to have found you here," she says, "where is mou?" his absence had not gone unnoticed, though whether that's simply because he's away on business or because of something deeper, reed has no idea.