Sore and bedraggled, Satu scrambled up the surface of yet another boulder to try and see where she was. When she'd fallen into the river she'd never expected it's fast flowing waters to bring her so far from home she couldn't recognize anything. And then when she tried to follow the river back, she'd gotten separated from it and horribly lost. Then chased away by that pack, set on by a blue jay that thought she was after her chicks, got stuck in a bramble and got scratched up and her fur got all ragged, had a squirrel throw pinecones at her and bruise her poor nose... and only a billion other things went wrong. She was pretty sure she'd been going the opposite direction she needed to go for a long, long, long time, but she couldn't tell for sure. Was this what adventure was like?
Now on top of the boulder, the gray-brown wolf peered around, hoping to see something she recognized from the higher vantage point. But no, the only recognizable landmark was the blue jay's tree. Satu shuddered, then flopped down on the rock with a sigh. She'd been trying to get home for so very long now. Maybe it was time to just give up? She didn't want to go back to the pack, no matter what had gone wrong on her journey. The freedom was absolutely intoxicating, and the idea of going back to being smothered in love was... mildly sickening.
But not doing her duty by taking care of her mother was just plain wrong, wasn't it? Loyalty was so complicated. Gah, she was such a mess. Probably best if none of her family could see her right now. No doubt her mother would be horrified and she'd never be allowed to go anywhere without a guard for the rest of her long, boring life. Well, at least she'd have some interesting - if embarrassing - stories to tell when she got stuck on babysitter duty, every single day for the rest of existence.
"Speech"
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