In Dire Straits - magnify, magnify [Mercury]

After her successful excursion into the Inbetween, Anika was invigorated with a new feeling of accomplishment and belonging in her new home where she had once been reluctant to stretch her roots. Not even rank and recognition had stayed Anika's creeping feeling of impermanence - there was no point staying planted if she was going to be uprooted by some catastrophe in the next moment. As time passed, however, and the little victories kept coming with no apparent end, Anika hesitantly accepted that her citizenship in Nardir was going to be a long-term arrangement.

The war did not end with a happy ending. The conflict had concluded with a sour ambiguity that, the more she pondered, deepened into profound distaste and confusion. Clean and cut reunions with easy resolutions -- she liked that. It made her feel good. Mercury and Aylie were home and she could rest easy.

After their return, Anika kept to herself, resting up from her long journey. All she needed was a day alone in her den before she was back on her feet and out in the Nardiri wilderness once more. Anika paced the meadows, moving solemnly, yet briskly, through the tall and sunkissed grasses. A cold breeze wound through her short, coarse fur like a windborne ribbon. As she walked, her mind clear of any particular destination or purpose, she became aware of a presence nearby. Her gaze was sucked towards the rich black of Mercury's pelt. Were it not for the traces of gold on her muzzle, Mercury would have looked utterly dissimilar to her royal sister, and yet somehow she managed to be the perfect dark counterpart to Alana.

Inexplicably, the ordinarily taciturn woman approached Mercury, intent on investigating the ex-general that she had once been tasked with retrieving. Mercury was an accomplished fighter and an honorable Nardirian who had, through her conquests, helped build the fledgling empire in its incipient hours. All of that was nice on paper, but Anika knew nothing beyond a cursory first impression, and she was intent on rectifying that. She was undeniably intrigued by Mercury beyond a professional obligation, perhaps because she was aware of the similarities between their personalities.

"Mercury," Anika greeted her, nodding her head. "How are you doing?" Blunt and to the point -- otherwise, this was not Anika.

ooc: takes place before the earthquake and after the return of mercury and aylie

She wandered the territory, through the waving meadows, the shaded woodlands, along the banks of the lakes and rivers. The dark moon sister noted the landmarks, memorized the pathways, and familiarized herself with the land called Nardir. Except it wasn't her Nardir. These weren't the forests in which she was born. This was not the water that she learned to swim in. Those were not her mountains. The land was a stranger to her, as strange as the pack she had been so suddenly enveloped in. She had been so intent on finding Alana that she had not stopped to consider that the pack would move on without her. Somehow, they had been frozen in her mind, an ever perfect crystalline vision. That vision had been shattered when she returned to the land she had lost. The shards, pieces she hoped to fit back together, had been ground to dust when she was welcomed home by unknown faces. She felt as though her heart had been wrenched out of her, and it was only Alana's presence who grounded her. Alana, who was still as bright as the full moon, and who had blossomed into a true pack mother.

Still, Mercury was restless, and wandered the territory aimlessly. She avoided the pack, rising early and trekking from one end of the territory to the other until well after the sun set. She had been a Queen, but she did not feel even remotely like a monarch now. Around her neck she still wore the collar of man, and in truth she felt more a stray dog than she ever had while she lived among the two-leggeds. There had been other masters, and several had not been as kind. The first had imprisoned her and put her on display. One had pitted her against dogs for sport. She had been nursed by another, only to be traded for mere meat. The faces, the scents, the memories blurred for Mercury. She had been swept away on the tide of man, and for a while she was submerged in it. She had gained many names, filled many roles. She had become lost.

Her last master had been a wealthy man, a trader of fine furs. She had not only been part of the team who had pulled his sled, but she had even helped him bring down game. Hunting had made Merc feel like a wolf again, had re-awoken her need to be with her pack, had called her back to the wild. Had her man been surprised when he awoke and found her tether broken? Or had he simply accepted that she was gone, and replaced her with another? She would not know. Not for the first time since she had began her journey home, Mercury lamented the one she had left. There were the sled dogs who had been her pack, and the man himself, whom she had grown to have a fondness for. She had not even considered it at the time, but would any of them have come with her? Another mystery she would untangle.

"Mercury, How are you doing?"

Mercury did not jerk, and showed no outward sign of being startled, but she was slow to turn her head in Anika's direction. Almost as though she had been turned to stone, and was slowly losing her petrification. Aqua eyes looked over the dog who had come up to speak to her. She cocked her head, puzzling over trying to recall a name. Sadly, she could not. She knew this was one of the Nardirians who had brought her home, but she could not put the memory back together. She had been so focused on Alana that she had not paid attention to much else. But here was a dog, and Mercury's mind flashed back to the team, and she felt the pull of their separation.

It is... unsettling to feel a stranger in one's own home." The dark moon said, turning her gaze back to the land. "I fear I do not know this Nardir. Those I left are lost."

Mercury gave the dog honesty, for she saw no point in hiding her truth. She was not a queen, she did not rule here. Her throne was far away in ruins, and she bore the scar of its removal upon her breast. She was a dog as much as the female next to her was a wolf. While Anika had undoubtedly earned her fangs, Mercury was assured that she had lost at least something of hers. Her collar could have been removed, the last shackle erased from her, her true wildness restored. Yet she had declined. She was not wild, not anymore, not yet. There were many wounds that were still slow to heal.