Arrow Lake In her face, the mirror of your dreams.

Hoping for an @Ingram but AW   :)

As a yearling branching off from her birth pack, Nyx had made a stubborn vow to herself that she belonged nowhere and to no one. She felt herself a free spirit, tied to nothing and content to press onward into the unknown without even sparing a glance over her shoulder.

But the years had changed her, pushed her, tested her. In the end, despite having found companionship in a brother she'd longed to find again, she was forced to face the harsh reality of her situation: for as long as she remained in the Teekon, she could not be whole again.

Quietly and with shoulders bowed beneath the weight of her shame, she abandoned her most beloved sibling and returned to Winterheart to face the family she'd left there. 

In large part, she hoped her mother and sisters would reveal the judgement she deserved, for Dirge had reserved his own. Nyx, steadfast in the belief that she did not deserve their kindness, sought the resentment in Kasaka's lovely eyes only to find nothing but appreciation for a safe return.

She spent many months piecing life together again, rebuilding and finally giving herself permission to break free from the chains of her dark past that bound her. Nyx committed herself to Winterheart to the best of her ability, integrated, forgave herself for the mistakes that she had let define her, but knew she could never forget.

To leave her family again was sorrowful, but she could not deny the itch to wander that drew many Ostrega wolves away. There was still so much beyond the forest that Nyx longed to see and, undoubtedly, unfinished business in the Teekon that drew her closer to its familiar shores.

The agouti wolfess dared not venture too close. If the coywolf remained on the coast with Grimnismal, she would be sure to tear at her throat without hesitation. What might Caiaphas have made of Nyx and Lycaon's sole son? She couldn't help but wonder from time to time. The memory remained a vivid one: a tiny porcelain babe, downy pelt spattered with the blood of his slaughtered siblings, mewling on cold stone of the grotto's slick floor.

A shudder trailed the length of her pepoered spine, and she welcomed the distraction of an unfamiliar park's aroma. Nyx lingered beyond their territory outskirts, nose testing the fresh markers that acted as deterrant, before she made a swift decision to try her luck and sent forth a request for attention.