Hoshor Plains I miss you so

She stayed in her blissful state as long as she could, but it would never last long enough. The real world would always interrupt. She did not react immediately to the chuff, instead her eyes stayed on Sunny as his form drifted away in the wind. Only when the last bit of him disappeared did she turn her head to eye the one that sent him away. 

The agouti-colored male showed he was friendly, and under normal circumstances, Steph would have readily replied with the wag of her own tail. But her tail had not seen happiness since the death of Sunny. Nor would it now. She did not smile; her eyes did not shine. But, she offered a dip of her head to the stranger, to show she meant no harm. 

Steph was nothing if not polite, but it was difficult for her in this situation to seek out another. They would want to chat, exchange names, etcetera. Steph did not even want to open her jaws, let alone fake an interest in such meaningless conversation. At least, to her, it was meaningless now. She was a lost soul in a vast world of uncertainty and she had no idea which direction would hold her new normal. Would she even ever find a new normal? Did she even wish to try and seek it out? 

She thought of her mother, @Valette, then, and what she had been through. If Valette had ever felt like this, she had not shown it to Steph. She only showed strength and the determination to move on with her life. Maybe she should return home. Maybe Valette could help her through this. Her mother had always been a beacon of hope. 

Internally, she still struggled with the decision of where to go from here. Home seemed like such an easy way. She could wrap herself up in her grief and mourn the way her heart wanted to. But, she feared if she gave in to it, she would never return from it. Somewhere, deep down inside, she did not want to be stuck in this dark place. At least her mind added some logic, but it wrestled with her heart, and there was no winner yet. They were still in the first round, and the fight would last for some time yet. 

But it wasn't so easy as to just let the time pass to see who the victor would be. She had to make a decision in every moment of every day. Like now. She could walk away from the stranger and never look back. She could wander her days away in the mountains. 

But, her heart and her mind were not the only players in this game. The basic instinct of survival showed itself in that moment. It did not care what the heart and mind wanted. It simply wanted to survive to the next day. Steph clung to that thought. She didn't need to pick the path of her new normal right this second. She need only to survive. 

And maybe this stranger could help her do that. She took the first step towards him, and then another, and then another, until the distance closed between them. Hello, she said simply.