Emberwood No end in sight

A few feet below her the woods began, the end of the mountain's domain concealed in the thick summer shadows of their laden boughs. The Sunspire lay somewhere behind her, but where exactly Andalusia couldn't say. Though her eyes had traced the peak while she could still see it, Andalusia had lost sight of her brother's home a while back and hadn't tried to look for it since.

The Ostrega had fared well in the Great Bear Wilderness, but her itching paws would not let her rest there long. Outriding had always been her purpose, and she had forced herself to go. Yet there was little aim in her wandering now, and an activity that once felt so productive left her yearning for something just beyond her reach. A hollowness pierced her, the same she had felt when Vienna had announced her engagement with Sumayl, and she frowned against it. They had moved on without her - all of them. She had always known the day would come, but to have it arrive - she couldn't have been worse prepared. To lay to rest her memories of Dhani and Celia had been easy, because they were truly gone. But her siblings were alive, and it was not easy to turn her mind from them. Wolves had come and gone from her life, and Andalusia had let them go. But she couldn't let her siblings go just yet.

And then there was the network of kin she had yet to discover. What was she to do with them? She had let the revelation fall to the recesses of her mind, but the understanding she wasn't alone was ever present and made her feel ignorant and exposed. So Andalusia slipped beneath the cover of the trees and for once welcomed the press of leaves against her fur, willing the undergrowth to embrace her and conceal her from the world. Birdsong took hold of her thoughts and the faint rustle of leaves, accompanied by the constant trickle of water somewhere in the distance. She let the simplicity of this place take her, all but her eyes, which remained searching the foreign wilderness around her.