Home sweet home

Being home was familiar and reassuring, yet devastatingly painful. Reminders of her recently passed mother were in every stone that made up the mountain and in every tunnel that the navigator had once mapped. Vanta had spent many nights and many days wrapped up in her sadness, reclusive within their den and ignoring all offers to head outside to play or hunt or explore. In the end, it was Zee's own late-companions who drove her to her feet and out the den entrance - the toucan spreading his wings wide to deny the pup entry back inside until sufficient time had passed and she'd gotten some exercise.

Vanta headed out toward the cove, found herself a quiet spot of water, and collapsed into the cold sand to watch the waves. The same sadness still hung over her even when the surroundings might have changed.
"Speech"