The Heartwood Somebody said, "Outside the rain..."

Ibis left her girls in the care of @Akavir, who had promised them a tour of some of the harder-to-access sections of the vale, which would simultaneously keep them distracted from thinking of their mother and tire them out, for which Ibis was thankful. They were transitioning away from drinking milk and the change was difficult, a struggle for the two picky girls, but Akavir would handle it.

She was busy hiking away from the empire for the first time since arriving there to claim it, happy to stretch her legs—but worried, too, for what she might miss by making this trip.

She had considered going north to visit @Eleuthera within the Court, or moving in to the flatlands to check in on @Ira and Kaistleoki; however, after descending the mountainside in the very early morning and being met with the overflowing banks of the Greatwater, she was distracted. Ibis crossed the plains that afternoon and did not consider how far she'd gone - or for how long her adventure had persisted - until she was seeking shelter and the sky was thick with darkness.