Dragoncrest Cliffs Brief and fleeting

There was something remarkably spiteful about the way Rosalyn’s question was posed, but Cherub’s Wing took it in stride. Veterans, after all – especially those with so many vicious scars – had earned their right to be unkind. I suppose you could say I was cast out, she responded, ears flickering backwards at the memory of her departure. We are required between our first and third year to leave the Isle and return with a mate, a new recruit, or not at all. It had been a sad affair to leave her home, but she had anticipated it and did not begrudge the custom.

Our elders say it is to be so to keep our bloodlines from mixing, encourage independent thought, bring new customs, and allow our traditions the chance to take root elsewhere if it must be, or should the Isle fall. She shrugged, only reciting what she had been told, too young to truly understand the reasons or the concept of her homeland disappearing. Wing knew nothing but stories of great floods and other natural disasters, all of which sounded impossible to her.

I thought I would like to complete my journey sooner rather than later, but it has turned into me owing my life to Sapphique. She felt no shame in not returning to the Isle. It had never been seen as a negative thing to branch off from the great tree of their beginning. Were you born in this pack? she asked then. Or did you have to leave your home, too?