Iktome Plains dead souls and a really big globe.

As Artaax turned south, fate seemed to be working some mysterious hand, because Kiwi had turned north.

Everything these past few months had drawn the girl out, and they'd set her thinking.  She'd not shared these thoughts with anyone, not even Sequoia, but they'd driven her further and further towards a single end.  She wanted to go back, just for a minute, just to see.  

Wildfire didn't miss it like she did, but Kiwi... she'd loved home.  And while she realized now she'd always been destined to leave it, that didn't mean she had meant to turn her back entirely.  She had more to learn from Artaax, and things to show him.  How she'd become their mom's new Regent, her Fleimkepa (no, not at all.  But it was how she thought it).  She would be the one to pass his lessons onto their younger brothers and sisters, but how could she do that if she didn't know them all?  She needed to learn more about the ducks.

It was stupid, and there was a big chance he would not greet her well.  He'd said as much last time they'd met, but she couldn't believe it.  She was his pupil, and he was her mentor.  Niamh had tried to fill his shoes, but there were some shoes that couldn't be filled.

She missed her big brother.

If she was going to go, she needed to go now, before Wildfire grew more pregnant and she had more responsibilities to fill.  So the young girl set off, striking north on what she hoped would be a short trip.  Along the coast, the path was narrow, and narrowed even more by the packs that bordered the strand.  There was really only one way she could go, and it was the direction in which he now lay.