Morningside Cuesta Unsteady

So... oops? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sunlight danced over the landscape, painting the earth below in rich, warm color. Orange, magenta, and purple blossomed into the sky like blood in water. Light ran like streams between the peaks of the distant mountains; mountains so far northeast that Magpie thought she would never see them up close, not even if she ran her entire lifetime. That made her heart ache, inexplicably. To never know something so beautiful in the flesh— it summoned forth a poignant sadness in her chest, though she was glad to have the chance of appreciating them from afar.

Those mountains were what she was giving up— might give up?— in abandoning the nomadic life of the Corvidae. It was true they had remained close to the Wilds throughout her entire lifetime; but Magpie had a feeling that she would never see them again. That her last goodbye was, well, the last goodbye. And while she wasn't particularly close to any of them, her last remaining blood ties lived here in the Wilds. Family was the most important bond, and the dark woman could not imagine exiling herself from her blood entirely. Not even for the eighth wonder of the world.

"Magpie?"

For a brief moment, so lost within herself and within the sunrise, she thought it was the universe calling to her. Instead, with a turn of her head, she was greeted by the distant approach of her (favorite) niece. With a grin, Magpie rose to her feet and began to close the gap between them. "Hey, lady," she called back in greeting, relieved at the distraction. It made it easier to ignore the emotions that threatened to overtake her; to focus on pure conversation, on someone else.