Taking Leave (Closed)

[Windra]

There was some serene comfort in the glow of the moon, the serenity of the soft-spoken clouds that were no more of a haze splattered like paint blots across the dark sky, speckled with glittering jewels that could be called stars. The night was quiet - crickets being the only sounds to break the silence. The occasional call of a mockingbird was a blessing in the dark, joining the sullen hoots of wise old owls and creating a type of harmony. Small creatures leaped to and fro - field mice gathering fruit, squirrels making a late night harvest, a predatory bird striking for prey or a bullfrog croaking in the shallow, muddy waters of the marshlands.

All of this would have been considered peaceful. But for the white and black creature that stalked through the night, it was somewhat unnerving. Wandering alone in these woodlands was not as safe as it had been when she first arrived. Amber eyes glanced back and forth, taking in every bit of the scenery. Long, striped, spotted tail was stiff and prepped to give a jump start should this cheetah decide to run from some kind of foe sifting through the long elephant grasses.

Why would a creature that could speed like a bullet at the drop of a dime want to travel through swampy lands, which would hinder her movement? If she went any other route, she would encounter people who became part of her life - monsters and cats, dragons and wolves ... humans ... - that she'd met in her short period of time living in the Woods. She didn't want to see them, didn't want to have to go through a bittersweet goodbye and shed any tears. Without Smoke around, Bast lost a bit of her heart. Too bad she didn't have enough of that vital organ left to work with what she had.

Bast was leaving. Returning to a place that had once been called home, but was ravaged, left derelict and destroyed and broken. Family members were killed, survivors ran, and the wounded who stumbled about only lasted for a short while before the lions, hyenas, and humans got them. She wanted to go back ... Back to Egypt, back home, back to see if, by some slim chance, one of her family survived. There was a calling - a need to return home. Would somebody be there, waiting for her? A brother, a sister, a rogue cheetah who'd been a cub in her pride years before?

The ratio of that happening was ... a million to one.

No. There will be somebody. Somebody.

White fur glinting in the moonlight; Amber oculars reflecting what the body didn't; Tear-streaks trailing from the corners of her slanted eyes resembling what she felt in side. Leaving one home in search of another ... It was a rough journey, but this was her second one of similar proportions.

One day, maybe, she would be back. But for now she needed to head to that strange calling from a home she left years ago.

[Bast has left this thread, and the Deep Forest.]