Northstar Vale I clutched your arms like stairway railings.

A part of her yearned for the old days—roaming free beneath the stars with nothing but the road stretching before her to eternity, nobody to worry about, and everything in its proper place. She would not give up her girls for anything now that she had them. She ran, and she thought of the day when @Okeanos had come calling at the Hollow, how eager she had been for an adventure with her brother. If he was still alive now and would he return to her, asking the same question with that heart-heavy look in his eyes—she would refuse him in a heartbeat. Ibis did not think her life would ever change so drastically prior to becoming a mother but it had, and it was better now. She had lost pieces of her family—pieces of herself—for years; Arielle and Lilitu were everything, now. They were the family she had built for herself and they would never leave her.

She tried not to let her mind take off to any extremes as she ran in the field, up the hill or down, around a stand of trees and back again. Her thoughts drifted to Akavir and Viinturuth, with both of them making her heart race; they were dutiful men, and one day she would have to choose between the two of them. As she contemplated a loose arrangement of thoughts (eenie meenie minee—) she saw a familiar shape lingering further up the hill and chose to investigate it. It was hard for Ibis to tell Reiko apart from Hime now and so she was wary at first.

The more she studied the familiar face and pleasant expression upon it, the more her heart ached. How long had it been since she'd visited her best friend? Ibis sauntered to where Reiko waited and drew up alongside her, feeling wind-burn on her cheeks and the pounding of her heart. Reiko—hi. She greeted between gasps for air. I thought I'd try to get a little run in before the girls woke up.