Swiftcurrent Creek I walked alone

Sometimes she wished she was back at Brecheliant, or back at Sweetharbour, with family and friends around her. Sometimes she wished she was back with the pirates along the distant bays, causing riot in the night.

Sometimes she wished she was a homebody, but Jasmine had long learned she was so prone to wander.

Fair weather made travel easy today, and the sun warmed her where, just a few days earlier, winter had clung in icy shards along her back. She slipped through these wild yet familiar lands, knowing the shapes of the far mountains as the barrier between herself and the kin she had left.

Far less pressing than the barrier she traipsed along now.

A pack? A rabble, more like. They reminded her of Sweetharbour in the strength of their marker - or lack thereof, until Bartholomew and Heda had established their sanctuary and others had flooded the little Isle.

She wondered how they were doing, if they had missed her, if they ever thought of her at all.

Anyway, she supposed it didn’t matter much. Or shouldn’t, anyway. And like she said, she had more pressing matters now - like the tall shadow who hovered there upon the plains just beyond her.