As cheerful as Ming Yue seems, something about what she says nags at me. A lacking purpose, maybe, though I also did not have one, and seemed to not require wandering, as she did; perhaps, then, it was a woman’s heart that set her hooves to wandering, or a consequence of who she was. Where I had simply avoided the rigid laws and structures of herds I felt confined within, it was possible that she avoided something else, entirely. Not having a purpose was not as bad as feeling useless, or seeking to escape something within your heart.

There was no place you could run, to escape that thing.

So, perhaps the handsome smile marking my face wearies ever so slightly in the heaviness of my thought, but it still lingers; allowing the conversation to slip into warmer waters, to garner more information about her plight without spoiling the halo of warm greeting that shrouds our words now, the wind striking cool in contrast.

Her flourish of words returns the smile, mostly because I won’t let myself feel that old, hurt of homesickness anymore. I am rogue! A wild boy! I do as I please, and take what I desire.

Get beat up for it a lot too, Duir remarks.

"I am not," I answer her, trying to shrug off smirking Duir’s comment (though I would really like to chase him across the Meadow, horn first), "I grew tired of being at the beck and call of the Generals. There has been a bit more strife out here in the wild, but I believe I have done well enough for myself. There’s also not a single soul to tell me where to be or when, and that’s worth any amount of struggle, if you ask me."

In so far as the work with the Time God, well… it was fascinating, enough, but mostly for Duir, considering the nature of the task I’d been given. I also wasn’t about to tell her I’d been admonished for being delinquently late in returning to the shrine in the first place. What would she think of me then? Women tended to like those responsible types, after all, and I rather like Ming Yue.

"I have wandered myself," I reply, at first, my smile warm, and my golden eyes lightening with a genuine interest as I ask, "did you perchance come upon a redwood forest, which flickers with thousands of fireflies in the eve? Those you saw there would have called it the Nightwalk. It’s fine if you didn’t, of course. It’s a good many weeks to the east."

Though my gaze is at first warm and eager, it perhaps gains some of the lonesomeness that begins to flood me when I think of all my friends in that distant land. I think of Xynia, and her laughter; I feel her shoulder kiss against mine. In the distance of this memory, Vaelenne’s voice calmly recites age old poems of the First Gods, and their ancestors, and my mother listens.

It would be good to hear of that place, again, even if it mostly just hurts to think of it, now. Clearing my throat, and redirecting the conversation back to the Time God, I do my best to push the painfully nostalgic memory aside for the present.

"Anyway, the Time God has agreed to help me grow stronger, and more skilled. I, of course, have my own end of the bargain to uphold, but he’s been fair, albeit a bit tough on me, so far," a respectful and almost amused smile crosses my lips, having found that I rather like the crass, powerful being of Time and Spark, and am eager to get to know him further (and maybe even impress him, as I had fighting the Bear God, along the way), "I can only benefit from it, anyway. Maybe they’ll help make the winter be less of a struggle."

Having chosen to leave the Basin the summer of last year, this would be my second one on my own. With Duir this time, and the promise of very little foraging (and likely deep, blustering blizzards), I admit the odds aren’t very good. However, unlike last year, I have a game plan, and at least one friend to share the coming struggle with.