all I want is what I had

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It was a wraith of a figure who ghosted through these lands once more, steps unsteady and form wasted. Her coat hung patched and dirty, and tired eyes spent more time trained on the ground between trembling forelegs than paying attention to the lands traversed. Still, some sort of beacon had carried her this far, a pull that she could not explain. When she had first embarked, all those months ago, she had intended never to return. As time passed, however, she found herself glancing back more and more, until one day she found herself no longer running away, but towards. Even that decision seemed a lifetime away to the sorry creature who stumbled along now.

She'd failed, wholly and miserably.

Her plans, initally, had been to connect with another group, find another place to winter where she could form a new start. It was soon apparent, though, that none were interested in taking on a lone wolf. Chased out of every pack she attempted to exchange greetings with, she was forced to hunt on her own, a trying task. Though she was hungry, she'd managed... until she'd come across that damn moose and decided to try her luck. What had possessed her to do so, she had no idea, but she cursed the decision countless times since.

A solid blow had cracked both shoulder and ribs, effectively ending any hope she had of hunting from that point on. For weeks she'd wandered, living off what little she could scavange, but it wasn't enough. Though her bones had since mended some, she was too far along. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. She could feel her mind beginning to drift, stretches traveled and memory not recalling how she'd done so. She knew her body would soon follow, and it was this desperation that had led her to the lands she stood before now. Memory had carried her back to another day, when Bazi, in a similar state, had come to Duskfire for aid. When Kaskara had come to fetch her, she'd offered to return the favor should it ever be needed, and it was this salvation that she had sought.

Only to find that hope in vain.

They were gone, the traces of Scimitar, Bazi, and Kaskara along the borders faint enough to tell the story plain. Instead strangers stood in their stead, and she knew that any hope of gaining aid based on previous agreement had fled with them. She made it only a short ways away before a shuddering sigh left her, and she began to tremble, so much so that she sat, unable to stand any longer. She had known she would not make it to Duskfire, and even if she could have, she had not known what sort of shape she would find it in. Pride would not let her be a burden, but it would have allowed her to collect on a favor.

It was unmistakably clear to her now; she would die here.