I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

Chill air nips across the sway and swell of bone beneath coral hide, soothing the prick of sweat across the woman's nape. Long tresses flicker across her hocks, soft nares flaring with effort that does not transfer to the serene expression upon a beautiful face. Set in a dished face, two shades of color stare out from intent eyes. Pathways wind before her, labyrinthine and dizzying with the possibilities that peek out from the folds of untouched decisions. It is the birthplace of branching lives and new beginnings. And though its name does not echo that of the fire-filled land that owns it, the lady believes it to be the true Heart of Helovia. The Threshold.

The Valkyrie lifts her face to the autumn sunlight that dapples through the bower overhead, proud horn glinting in her peripheral vision as she stares down the worn path she has chosen. Straight to the unclaimed lands of wild freedom and lawlessness. A decision not made lightly, one spoken of in hushed voices with the golden shadow who hounds her heels. Even with the decision weighing heavy and real in her head, her heart careens down a different path. Straying northward, to where the lights dance eternal in the sky and the stars blanket vastness interrupted only by mountains that reach to embrace their light. The Aurora Basin was not where she had taken her first breaths, but it was her home. She had ruled it faithfully, until desperation and her duty as a mother had ripped her from the icy throne and thrust her into the bowels of the unknown.

Romina had inherited her wanderlust from her father, a characteristic she and Hotaru would never share. Hotaru had been happy with the boundaries of Helovia as her guide, learning each crevice and crag until she could walk its faultlines in her sleep. Never had she desired to know what lay beyond the domain she called home. But when Romina had disappeared in the wake of devastation and fury, Hotaru had thrust her crown aside to follow her into the darkness. The Valkyrie had failed too many times as a mother to think twice about putting her people before her children ever again. So she had fled - or tried to, because there was one other thread tied to her soul that she could not sever so easily. The same thread that had taken Ophelia from the same throne.

Love.

It was love that had led her to the forests of the Edge, to the confessions and decisions that came thereafter. And when she hesitated, one hoof poised over the line between Helovia's lands and the unknown, he was there to press along her side and quietly await her decision. Until she stared down the horizon with unblinking eyes and walked away from everything she knew.

And here she was at last, returning home with family trailing behind her. Sides swollen with life that seeped energy from her limbs, demanding and unforgiving as the souls inside sought life of their own. The journey was exhaustive, the toil too much on her delicate bones. Her hooves had carried her countless miles, but she pushed onward furiously, breaking down the last bits of her fortitude to make her only wish a reality.

This is our home. My children will be born here, no matter what it takes. This is where I took my first breaths, where all my children did the same. It shall be no different this time. Alice crooned softly at her heel, ever faithful wherever Hotaru wandered.

Until finally she arrived, home at last. A temporary foreigner for the first time, coming through the portal to the land of her childhood as a newcomer instead of a queen.

Though her knees quaked and sweat dampened her neck, Hotaru lifted her head triumphantly as the dawn rose to meet her with its sisterly hues. Everything seemed to resonate with kinship around her, calling her home, singing its welcome in a language that had been lovingly written into the marrow of her bones.

"Home at last."