Coming back around again

Anthea listened closely as Mercury described the number of islands that made up their old home and how some of them were large enough to hold trees while others were just sand bars. It distracted her from her food, but she didn't mind. She nodded with agreement as he suggested that one of these smaller islands might have become a sanctuary when she was pushed out into the ocean to escape the fire, almost as if him saying it out loud started to reconnect some threads and strands of memory. It felt right even if she couldn't fully picture it. She looked down at the ground between them as Mercury began to sketch out a shape that she quickly realized was supposed to be Illious, listening as he named off a new of the distinguishing features that she had mentioned in their conversations to pinpoint where she might have lived and then the small island off of one of the shores.

Her dinner at least momentarily forgotten, she examined the map he had drawn out with a bit of awe. "Yeah... yeah, that seems right," she agreed after a moment, smiling a bit as she glanced over at him with amazement. "I've never seen it drawn out like this before... I've never really thought about the shape of Illious or tried to picture how big it was. You didn't travel inward much, but I only ever traveled inward unless we made a trip to the beach here to play in the ocean or... or meet with the traders." She had been pointing to the same area where he indicated her forests might have been and the beach she remembered and then her paw stopped, covering over the coast line he had drawn out in his rough map. The memories of coming to the beach with her family to make trades with the wolves that landed on their shore with goods to trade flitted through her mind and it suddenly clicked like a fire crackling to life.

"There was a boat..." she mused quietly, her brow pulling together with thought as a frown tugged at her lips and her gaze grew distant. "I was on that little island... I think I was there for a while. I remember being really thirsty and hungry. Then there was suddenly a boat floating by and I flagged them down." She was quiet for a moment, her ears flicking back as she struggled between wanting to push forward and keep following the train of thought, but something about that thought made her heart beat faster and her hackles bristle nervously. Leaning into Mercury once more to remind herself that she wasn't alone and she was with someone she trusted, she kept going, adding, "I... I recognized the boat. It was one of the traders that we used to see from time to time. But... it was the one Dad had told me not to speak with alone and to be wary of... but I didn't know what else to do so I flagged him down anyway."

"Anthea Dásos"