Redsand Canyon But the memory fades, everybody knows

Fennec had made a few trips to the Bramblepoint by now and hadn't once stepped a single foot closer to Brecheliant.  A part of her initially mocked herself for cowardice, but it wasn't hard to see that wasn't it.  If it was that she was afraid, she wouldn't want to go so damn badly, and she wouldn't be needing to actively prevent herself.

But if anyone was going to stay in her life, then it was their turn to actually fucking try.  She didn't know if she'd be willing to forgive either of them at this point, but she did know that every time she'd tried to push herself into their lives it had ended with nothing except regret. 

Penn and Bronco both had their chances.  She was moving on.  And next year, she'd find someone new... some stranger, someone whose name she didn't even have to know.  It wouldn't matter, just so long as they agreed to disappear entirely when it was done.  Towhee was right, before, and Fennec had already proven that she didn't need someone else. Just even getting to raise Killdeer had been enough.

Fennec pulled her paws out of the soil she'd been packing and sighed, feeling more at peace now than she had in a long time.  Her paws were pricked with thorns, but she'd need to rinse them before she groomed them clean.  The garden she worked in was set against the canyon wall, surrounded by a barrier of thorns she'd woven together and needed to shove aside to gain entrance.  She'd reset it when she left, but for now she needed the room to work.  She'd found a new plant in the neighboring flatlands, one that brought dreams if it wasn't used in a high enough dose to be lethal, and she was tucking it away just in case.  It was kind of community service - now no one would stumble across it unawares, and she could save it for a rainy day.