Sea Lion Shores we're floating in the moonlit sky

Sea Lion Shores

She stood along the shore, her expression wistful. Her birth had been a shore like this, snow-covered but still lapped by the half-frozen tide. It had seemed so long ago that she had left, barely old enough to fend for herself and yet old enough to understand the faiths taught by her mothers and the concept of destiny. Old enough to know that the dreams sent to her by Atka foretold of a fate meant for her on distant shores. Part of her heart ached for that cub that had ventured from home so young—she remembered her siblings, and the particular attachment she had felt for Atropos. But now it was beginning to seem like a dream, all twisting and fading and hard to hold on to.

With her first birthday nearly upon her, and all she held dear so far away, her time in Echo Cove seemed as if it were a lifetime ago. Lysianassa had been alone for nearly half her short life, rescued only by the fateful reunion with her older brother. Except for him, the wolves that surrounded her were foreign. They did not know of Atka or Sos, of the Sea or the Moon Mother (she would be very surprised as time went on, for it seemed that the Great Bears even had reach in this faraway place).

After a time, she rolled to sit back on her haunches, happy to be near the Sea even if it played on her emotion and memory. It would do her no good to remain focused on her birthplace, for Atka had made it clear that her destiny was here in the Wilds. Even so... with it only being weeks until she would be promoted to the adult ranks, Lysianassa couldn't help but wonder what might have been if she had remained at Nanuq and Aktaie's sides.