what's left of our eden's garden to grow?

Phaedra · (This post was last modified: August 06, 2020, 05:13 AM by Phaedra.)

they had left her home, and for the moment her mind was immersed with petty sorrow that her fey garden was lost to her forever. the time that the journey took was long and the way of it long, but presently, the day was done. the birds sung no longer and darkness wrapped the earth with the coverlet of sleep, although phaedra was troubled with restlessness and insomnia.
despite a languor of her legs, scabrous pads and a calloused mind, even the listlessness that described her after such tedious travel, she still tossed and turned sleeplessly. with an aggravated huff, the belle rose wobbily to her feet and padded quietly through sleeping bodies, plying a searching glance for her mother with a wistful exhale.
unlike the other pups, phaedra had insisted upon sleeping alone, and her conscience stirred briefly as she saw her all alone.
nonetheless, she needed somewhere private to process all the changes taking place. she shook out her wet ruff and thought she noted an ambrosian scent on the wind in the greensward beyond the berm where they rested.

caintigern always lurked closeby, but with the pack so congested, he dared not approach phaedra during thei journey and made an agitated chitter upon blearily peering down from his shuteye in a nearby tree to find her departing from the group. the marten dithered left and right on his branch, but there was no path for him to phaedra, and he stood with alarum as he watched her leave. "use your common sense, phaedra, don't be a fool," he whispered in an exasperated breath.

the swarth was more like a swale now, transformed by the cloudburst in less than the half-day they had spent in the vicinity. the rain came down hard, pelting her relentlessly, stinging her eyes and soaking through to her bones. the grass bowed in the standing water.
lost in her pensive sadness, phaedra pressed onwards through the teeming lowveld, finding to her surprise that the runoff rose all the way to her knees. her heart gave a squeeze, needlesly reminding her of that tattooed memory.
even with that on her mind, through the rain she could see the colorful crowns of rockcress in the distance, limning the slopes and swaying 'neath the torrential downpour. she yearned to smell home in their bed.
it seemed to take forever, and once she reached them her tired forelegs folded beneath her. phaedra nuzzled the rouge flowers, inhaling their scent, and felt her face unconsciously crumple into the plaintive expression of deep grief.