Blackfeather Woods us and them

@Coelacanth @Moorhen @Reigi @Kove @Relmyna AW to anyone else who wants to join

She had expected it to be scarier than she remembered.

But the skulls were gone from the border, the bloodstains barely visible. No, besides the sheer darkness of it, it seemed much like any other forest. Different, yes, from the sun and surf that had been her life for the past moons. It was not, however, the place of malevolent shadows that she remembered.

Was it that she had grown up and lost her fear? Or had things truly changed here?

Maegi breathed deep, taking in the mix of scents. Kove and Relmyna--those aromas were sharp. Others, though. . .there were many faint smells she recognized, but none so prevalent. Her mother, still absent. Cicero, gone. If her brothers had rejoined the pack, their scents were not a part of the border markings.

Who would meet her, today?

She flashed a nervous glance at her traveling companions, her eyes lingering on Coelacanth the longest. The guilt of dragging the Aralez back to the place of her nightmares would never fully leave her, and she drew closer to the inky woman, touching her muzzle briefly to the silken shoulder. A twist of her stomach--

Was this a mistake? She supposed she couldn't go back now, not after all the preparation and travel. There was always the possibility of visits, true, but once she stepped over this line, she was no longer a Daggertooth. She would never be a seawolf.

She would be Maegi Melonii, spiderling priestess of Blackfeather Woods, once more. Her destiny, her desire, from birth.

With a troubled quirk of her ruined lips, the girl tipped her muzzle to the sky and howled.