Broken Antler Fen there's no place like home

Tagged AW but I'm hoping for a @Skwol

There was something peculiar about having left your home for a long period of time. The gnaw of nostalgia could act as a crippling reminder of a past life. For Lucy, the taste of the air that she had believed to be lost, was the only thing that fueled her to return. It had been a year, and the girl had grown into a lean, wild shadow; long enough that she scarcely remembered what the woods used to feel like when she was young. Fleeting memories of fireflies and the companionship of two boys filled her mind was fantasies and before she knew it, she was there.

The length of her strides slowed. Lucy peered upward with brilliant blue eyes and she breathed a shaky breath. A ratty piece of rope hung from around her neck, torn and damaged from her travels, but still marking her with a foreign claim. One paw was lifted delicately, her nostrils flaring with each heavy pant for air, for familiarity. She had truly never been to that portion of the woods, and she was still a stretch from her original home, but she knew. Instinct told the inky wisp that she had finally arrived back home.

Snow blanketed the trees overhead. The fen was wrapped in a serene – almost supernatural – silence. The shadow took a few shaky steps forward, ears propped tall on her crown. She could hear herself breathing, and the faint sound of her own heart beating rapidly in her chest. Each step brought the crunch of snow, but she paid it no mind. Lucy had found home and all that she had left behind.