Duck Lake spare me from this limbo

*crashes party*

Once the pack had dispersed, Harlyn had wasted no time in escaping the confines of the Plateau's borders.  She had hoped to clear her head of the initial anxiety that had gathered there upon hearing Dante's words, but the more she pondered them, the more heartsick she felt.  She wanted to be gone and done with the Plateau.  It was not her home, had never been her home.  As fond as she was of those she'd met, they were not her family.  Mordecai was her family, and what exactly would happen to him when Dante decided to take those who would go off to this other wolf's pack to defend it from the Caldera?  How slim the chances seemed to her that Mordecai would let his friend go without him.  And where would they be then?

It was a while before Harlyn finally stopped and turned her head to the sky, shut her eyes and began to pray.  She believed truly and deeply in her heart that it was with Mordecai that she was meant to be and with him that her future lied.  If it was not their intention that she be granted that future yet, then the druid was ready and willing to accept that fate.  "Just show me the way..." she whispered as a tear slipped down her cheek, "Please, I pray.  Show me the path it is your will that I take."

It took a few minutes, but slowly the wind began to shift, and with it came the scent of one she recognized.  Harlyn tilted her muzzle downwards and opened her eyes, her heart swelling with gratitude as she leaped to her feet and took off along the trail.  It wasn't too much longer that she came upon the owner of that scent - Luke.  He was not alone either, Harlyn realized quickly enough as she slowed her pace to approach them.  His companion was another she recognized - the alpha of the mountain pack, the one who had offered her a home before she had found Mordecai.

"Oh, praise the gods..." Harlyn whispered as she swiftly went to Luke and pressed her crown against his chest in a wolfish hug.  She turned then to the mountain's Alpha, smiling as she nodded to him.  If possible, she was just as happy to see him as she was Luke for he too was a sign from the gods - a sign that it was time to move forward with the promises she had made, to provide a home to those she'd taken in to her family just as this alpha had once offered a home to her.  She turned and planted a kiss on Luke's muzzle, just because her heart was too full not to.