Your dependency had been shed like a second skin and age had awarded you freedoms that you’d only dreamt of as a small, ignorant child. However, it had also saddled you with daunting responsibility. It didn’t matter where you rambled so long as you promised eminent return. And it didn’t matter where you slept beneath the wide berth of stars above so long as they kept you company through the night. Yet, losing such childish restrictions hadn’t left you entirely ungrateful for your mother’s attentive eye or her protective suggestions. Instead, it was a humbling reminder of just how far you’d come and how far you had left to go. 

Behind you were visions of golden copses and greying, timeworn harbors that bore little resemblance to the vibrant, emerald wildwood of Helovia. You had traipsed from one seaboard to the next, savoring the damp scent of the earth just before an errant rainstorm or reveling in the heat of a mild summer’s day. Yet, there were times in which you spent infinite hours wasted by the throes of your nostalgia. At first they were mere mild transgressions that lasted no more than a wrinkle of your time between the long, meandering days of adventure. But it wasn’t long before those transgressions became iniquities far too glaring in their implications to avoid.

It would have been a lie to deny the reasoning behind your homecoming and you had no intention of masking those desires if pressed. However, the fabric of your life had always been a modest ensemble despite your buoyant nature, which was why you had chosen not to return so immediately to the South and its foreboding flame. The Dragon’s Throat was your home, but whether or not you’d been truly missed was another matter that you weren’t ready to discuss. 

Instead you sought the familiar coast of the Endless Blue and the memories it afforded you, as they were so similar to the ones you’d experienced on warmer, southern shores. As you picked your way across the prismatic seaside, you found yourself searching the smooth, colored pieces scattered atop the sand for a cerulean trinket to toss into the waves. You wanted to watch as the water’s glimmering face sloshed over the glass, curious to see if it's ultramarine hues would waver despite the change of location. Perhaps you related it to yourself, the glass, or maybe your curiosity was just another of your quests born out of sheer wonder for the world... Even you had a hard time deciphering the difference. 

Gyda