Ximena

It had been days, but it felt like so much longer. The clan leader, Anua, had been silent and seemingly unapproachable. She reminded Ximena of a sentinel, strong and unwavering.

"Time we... leave, Sadie... This...not right...home." Ximena hummed sadly.

"But...the other dragons are so nice! The play with me! The landscape is beautiful! I could play in the snow all day! And Rymamelli...invited me to go catch butterflies with him this evening! Don't leave, Ximena! Where are you going to go? Where?" Sadie squeaked, wrapping herself around Ximena's ankles.

She shook the dragon off her, deciding then...to leave. Sadie seemed to get along well with everydragon in this new clan, but Ximena could not believe such a clan existed. She was not so naïve...not anymore.

- - - - -

With bundle packed and the sun peaking over the Cloudscape Crags in the distance, Ximena set off to return to the lands of the Wind Flights once again and seek her true home.

A few hours into her travel, she stopped. Something wasn't right. It shouldn't be getting colder. She should be almost out of the Ice territory by now, but there was more snow and ice than when she first set out. A deathly cold gust of wind blew through her feathers, and she could no longer move. What was happening? Her feet would not listen to her commands and she was losing all sense of the world around her. Everything shifted, and in front of her she saw...what could be nothing but the accursed Fortress of Ends. A mother Guardian, protecting her young hatchling, stared at her from the cave entrance carved into the side of the Fortress. Ximena wondered if she was asking for help. "Ximena...not...help...so sorry." Her words were lost in the air as it grew colder and more violent and she could imagine it: herself, a statue, forever waiting for help from those ones that happened along this dark place, also lost and without hope, who could not give it. As her world dimmed, the snow moved, and a final word formed in her throat, a plea for help: "A...nua..."

- - - - -

Ximena ached. She ached everywhere. Her throat was raw. But the room was warm and she could feel... somedragon pressed against her. Who was it? She willed her eyes to open...and she realized the dragon wrapped around her was Anua. Eyes as white as snow but so unlike it, gentle and warm, stared at her, awaiting her reaction. Ximena could not move. She felt cries rising in her throat, but before she could make a sound, Anua touched her nose to Ximena's forehead and whispered...

"Do not ever leave home without telling me. Do you understand, my reckless hianag (daughter)?"

Even though her cries filled the chamber and her body felt numb, unmovable, Ximena had never felt so happy, and... warm.

...Home...finally...