time

She was grateful to be away from home; away from the lands she had come to recognize as her own. But truthfully, Epiphron was attached to her family and to familiarity, not to the lands themselves. She had learned to leave her birth-pack, and this one might not be so different. But Maverick was not just her husband -- not just her partner, but truly her other half. With him, she would always be, for all eternity.

Her own tail lashed out behind her, sliding briefly against his own, before settling down at her hocks. Still the water lapped at her paws, cold and bitter and just as unrelenting. "I feel the same way," she agreed with a soft exhalation of air. If they hadn't been blessed with children, things would've been different, but she did not regret their births for the world. They would've continued to rule, their leadership strong and unshakable. However, it seemed fate had different plans for them. "Perhaps we should leave." She tested her words carefully, her expression guarded as she watched him. Once, such a thing would've been unthinkable to him, but things were so different now. "Maybe not forever, just for awhile." There was so much of the world they had never seen, and she was beginning to wonder if they ever would.