Plenty to go Around

Being out and about on her own in wild lands still felt... strange to Satira. She had spent so much of her life at her collective family's side that solitude almost felt wrong. But the more she thought about going back to Elysium and everyone, the more she felt an unusual anxiety about it that hadn't been there before. Tira loved her family more than anything else in the world, but more and more lately, she found herself feeling like a phantom in her own world, not truly belonging here nor there nor anywhere really. It was a strange and isolating feeling, one she didn't think she could openly share with anyone. Who else would understand what it felt like to feel out of place in your own life? The wedding had been a nice change of pace, an exciting event where she could go and forget about her worries and woes. She'd tried alcohol for the first time, gotten to slap the smug grin off that asshole who'd made fun of her before, and then... well, the rest of the night was a bit of a hazy blur, but the memories she did recall made her face flush hot enough to melt the snow she was trudging through.

On her own, Satira walked through the pristine undisturbed snow of the flat prairie, not really heading in any particular direction. Northwards, she supposed, though whether she returned to Elysium right away or not remained to be seen. She should, she supposed, so as to at least not worry her mother over her. But even that didn't feel like the right path to her anymore. Tira just didn't know what she wanted anymore or what she was supposed to do. It was an existential crisis of the highest order, and it felt like she was rapidly approaching a crossroads in her life where she would need to decide who she was and who she wanted to be. Frowning as she mused over her own mental conflicts, the tawny wolf-dog didn't even notice the gray-furred girl from her past in her makeshift den, her tiny paws crunching through the snow while she wandered to nowhere in particular, bracing against the harsh chill of the occasional gale.

"Satira"