Look Ma New Scars

His paws crunched softly across the frosty ground as Meriadoc made his way to Valhalla’s border.  Once at its edge he stopped to get a feel of it. His eyes roved the timeless landscape and compared it to what he could recall of his boyhood. It felt like ages since he’d last stood here. How long had he been gone? How many seasons? Long enough for his children to nearly reach their teens. Long enough for him to have children. He wondered how things were with his siblings. Were they well? Had they families of their own? So much had happened in his time away that anything seemed possible.

Meriadoc saw the Valhallan landscape with new eyes. The thick grasses subdued by winter. The silly wall marring the land’s wild visage like an ugly scar. Like a memory plucked straight from his mind the wind still whistled relentless across the plains. To stand there and look in like a stranger was humbling.

Were any of his siblings still here? Artur in particular he wondered about. His brother’s anger and his dreams had seemed certain to take him elsewhere. Cairo certainly would have stayed, he was just like that, but Meri wasn’t sure about their sisters. There was only one way to find out.

In a voice he wouldn’t have faulted them for not recognizing, Meriadoc howled for his siblings.