Jade Fern Grove it rises with the fall.

The days had gone by one by one and still Tytonidae had not returned.  As worried for her as the young Ostrega was, his melancholy at missing her was slowly becoming something he'd never expected - bitterness.  Why was it that those he cared so much for kept leaving him?  Both Magpie and Ty had left him not once, but a few times each.  Ferdie had left.. Red, Aleera, Cuan, Mallaidh... Now even Vienna and Sumayl were planning to go.  As much as he despised himself for thinking it, the Sunspire had become a mountain of ghosts to him, and each day upon it had grown more painful than the last.


And then there was Karveila....

Summer had spotted the girl lurking in the outskirts of the Sunspire a few times.  Every couple of days, he'd slip down the mountainside to search for her - never coming anywhere near enough for her to know he was there.  He had no desire to speak to her again, not yet anyway.  Seeing her snowy white form upon the landscape was proof though that he hadn't dreamed the whole thing up - his father really was alive, and she truly was there, waiting to take him back with her.  For once, Summer was not the one waiting; he was the one worth waiting for.

It was late in the evening when Summer slipped down from the mountain and crept past the borders into the neutral lands.  He again made certain to avoid the messenger from Sedona as he went as he still had no idea what to tell her.  He felt suffocated at the moment within the shadow of the Spire, and so he quickly broke into a run and allowed his long legs to take him as far away from it as they could.

When the young wolf slowed, he found himself in the middle of a forest.  The ferns grew so thick upon the entire floor that it felt almost as though he was wading through elbow-deep water.  Summer paused to sniff at a leafy frond, his tongue flicking out to taste the drops of dew that had collected upon them.  Somewhere overhead, thunder began to rumble heralding the coming of a gentle rain shower.  Summer's ears fell back as the drops began to fall through the canopy, but instead of seeking shelter, he continued to meander, just as aimless as he felt in his heart.