Phoenix Maplewood It had become a glimmering girl

@Grace Feel free to slot this in your timeline as needed. :)

The sound of sobbing was loudest in the center of the wood, where a pale wolf with red ears slumped over what was once her den.

Stepping foot into the woods had brought with it a hundred memories. Memories of the fire that sent her fleeing from her former home. Memories of Nochtli and Citali, who had both left and never returned. Memories of Reek before he'd been the monster he'd evidently become. Memories of Junior, who had never lived in the forest with them but who had died in the fire, or so she thought. Memories of her time leading the pack through both its toughest times and most triumphant times. Sickening memories of Reek and Tavi locked in one another's embrace. Heartbreaking memories of her children and their first breaths. The place no longer smelled of her. That was probably the most heartbreaking thing of all.

She'd wandered, nearly catatonic, through her former home until she'd found her den. The place she'd given birth to three children, two girls and a boy. The boy was gone now. The girls still needed her, she hoped. But for the moment, Saena sought refuge in her former home and time to come to terms with everything that had happened over the past half a year. Her girls could wait one more day, as traitorous as that thought seemed to her at times. They could wait one more day while their mother gathered her broken wits, took a deep breath, found her feet again, and began searching for her favourite stream whilst preparing herself for what was to come in a matter of days.