Sun Mote Copse Relationships and politics should not mix

@Towhee 

Few days had passed, since Wraen had spoken with Towhee last and under excuse that she was still under the weather, the former Sovereign had avoided everyone. Save for Maia in the evenings and occasional "hello"s, when her path happened to cross with someone else's, but she did not stop to talk. She was quiet, reserved and deep in thought. Today she had stopped at her favourite look-out spot on the borders - a hillock, from which she could the vast expanse of the bog. Here she loved to come, when she needed to think.

And think she did need a lot. First, Wraen revisited that cold winter day, when she had come here first and met Wildfire, who had offered her a home. She relived the first spring here - so happy, so full of hope and joy - followed by sorrows of summer and the very difficult autumn and winter months. Only to see the spring bloom again and bring life back again.

This had been a very beautiful one and a half year. It had felt like a lifetime, she had learned a lot, done more growing up, more maturing (she hoped) and discovered that at the very core she would always be the same person. Having never been in a committed relationship with anyone, Wraen formed attachments with places and packs she lived in. She had loved this place dearly and had given everything to it, she had truly believed that this would be her final place to settle. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health. To love and to cherish. 'till death do us apart. She fell in love with them slowly, gradually, sincerely believing that if she was good enough for it, worked hard enough, that would be it.

Yet still that beloved face had manage to become cold and foreign to her and with this happening for the fifth time she had finally learned that happiness did not reside in either places or other people, it came from within her. That warm flame inside her heart that had been love for Firebirds and everything they had represented had begun to wane months ago, until last week it had died completely. Wraen had hoped that she would be able to rekindle it somehow, that she only needed time and calm, but by now it was clear that just the same way as her prior relationships this too had run it's course and turned into dust. 

She felt a little cheated - how could it be that she had given up a quarter of her life for this place and ended up at an abandoned feast table, where only crumbs and dirty dishes were left? Where was the fulfillment? Where was the pat on the head and praise for job well done? So much time in order to end up exactly, where she had begun. Unhappy and homeless. Wraen wanted to blame it all on the new alliance with Moonspear, but it was only the last drop in a cup that had almost been full before. Change had happened much earlier and she could trace it back all the way to that November day, when Towhee had arrived here to stay. She had realized then already that her power here was only formal, because if ever disagreements arised, the Redhawk girl would have had most of the pack on her side.

It had simply been a matter of time. Add her own inability to have children and make her claim valid and she could easily see, why she had never succeeded in staying at one place for long. Never would. The ties that she formed were not strong enough - they were fragile - and the older she became, the more difficult it was to form new and meaningful friendships. Once family life got in the way, you lost even the most valued friends. Wraen tried to list all of the people that had come in her life and left afterwards and it hurt to think that nothing was constant in the world. Change came and surprised her, when you expected it the least. 

So, perhaps, the wisest thing for her was to conclude things, while she could still do it with the remnants of love that still remained, and move on. Either to the next thing or something entirely different. With this thought in mind she got to her feet and walked through the copse to find Towhee.