road to transformation

The room had been stifling. It made her skin crawl to be there, holed up in that room again, not knowing, but assuming what had happened in the very next room when she hadn't been able to walk more than a few steps without stopping to gasp for air. The bile burning in the back of her throat and the rage that simmered beneath the surface stole sleep from her, so she slipped from the rooms she shared with her family and made her way across to the archipelago, to somewhere that still felt safe, and was beginning to feel a lot more like home than the building on the island did.

It was strange, even as a child she had stuck close to the shrine, so why her paws would lead her up hard worn paths... Overgrown with disuse, yes, but still there after all the years of travel they had endured, well, it did puzzle her. This had been the home of Tori and Venom, and their children, not hers. Still, she could feel some of her tension ebbing under the gentle light of the moon, the early summer breeze still holding a hint of spring in its crispness, but it carried with it no promise of rain. A welcome change.

“Speech.”