amaryllis was as unique a place as ever.

at every turn, there was a new biome, a new atmosphere, a new stone to be turned. desdemona had strayed far from the summit, her pelt that smelled of crisp wind and endless frost an oddity in the sparse deadlands that surrounded her. in the distance, she could the peaks and ridges and ribcages of creatures long dead. behind her, a hyena cackled somewhere far off - loud enough to alert her, far enough for her not to worry. the autumn sun was nowhere near as harsh as the summer heat and the patchwork cat finds herself stopping within the shadow of a huge stone ledge. the hollows aren't too far from here and she considers visiting dahlia again, though decides to give the growing woman time and space to herself.

the feline instead rests in the shade, drawing a paw upwards and rasping her tongue over it for an impromptu grooming session.

again, that hyena laughs somewhere. sounding much, much closer than it had before. perhaps she had ought to leave.

@Asteria

A new exhaustion settled over the dark furred girl; one she did not mind so much. It was exhaustion all the same, though, born of sleepless nights and hours tucked away in her den, staring at the new life she had managed to create. Even if her life made absolutely no sense at the moment -- even if she had screwed up her friendships and every dang relationship she had formed since being dumped in amaryllis -- asteria was happy. They made her happy, bringing a joy to the new mother that she had never imagined.

Helping her to understand true love; guiding her to realizations that she would have never reached on her own.

Still she seeks a break, stepping out of the hollows to breathe in the fresh air of the outside world. An explorer, always, she leaves her heart behind in the care of Hiccup (split in to four perfect bodies) and follows her soul. It leads her on a meandering journey to a land she had been to very rarely. It is a barren place yet she is not alone, startled by the sudden laugh of a too-close hyena. Without thought she turned towards the shadow provided by the overhang of a huge ledge, knowing how well her dark coat could blend in to the shade.

It is then that she realizes (again) that she is not alone, the face that emerges one she had never imagined she'd see again. Hit by a wash of memory she is stunned to silence for a moment before finally a wavering "@Desdemona?" slips from her lips.

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a dainty paw catches a tangle behind her ear, discarding a scrap of white fur. it stirs in the hot wind and desdemona looks up, immediately stopping her washing at the sound of movement. she starts, considering the cackle of hyenas. her fur bristles, claws unsheathed. though the dark face that arrives into the cool shade of her overhang is far from hyena, but also far from anyone she had been expecting.

when the patched cat had stumbled back into amaryllis and to the lagoon, she had found nero. she had sputtered and pleaded for the location of others- her children, saga, magnus and ... "asteria?" she murmurs the name at the same time the other whispers her own and her heart skips a beat.

the girl - no, woman - before her is all she had remembered and so much more. she finds herself caught in the amethyst of @Asteria's eyes, warmed to see them dry instead of glittering with tears. the lagoon heir had told her that she resided in the hollows, after all, and the network of caves was not far from the grit and sand of the badlands.

she pulls herself to her paws, moving so slowly as if she would scare the lioness off. so much had changed and she doesn't know where to begin. the cat can only hope the crisis of identity and heartache that plagued asteria had been shed, cast aside into the sand and ocean to make space where grass and flowers could bloom, fertilized only by memories of the late saga.

desdemona is almost afraid to touch her and she plays at her lip with her fangs. she inches forward, nearly leaning on her toes before she hurries towards asteria in a sudden flurry of movement, attempting to loop a forearm around the lioness' neck in an inpromptu hug and press her nose into her cheek.

There is the brief consideration that she might be dreaming. Long days and longer nights rimmed her eyes with exhaustion and suddenly she thought that maybe she didn't leave the den after all. Maybe she had simply laid down her head and closed those eyes and fell in to a lucid dream. That was much easier to believe than running in to (for all intents and purposes) a ghost.

A ghost that breathes and carries a scent so achingly familiar that her heart clenches with an aching grief. The Zero cannot bring herself to break the spell. She stands, claws gripping at the earth beneath her, watching intently as the calico cat seems to go through the same disbelief.

It is only when @Desdemona rushes towards her that Asteria unfreezes from her spell, numbly lifting a forearm to wrap around the woman in return. "It's you," she murmurs as she turns her nose towards the neck, breathing deep of the scents that sparked a thousand memories. Despite her happiness she finds tears filling her eyes, or perhaps it is because of her happiness.

"I never..." she swallows, pulls back a little, seeking to catch her eyes, "I'm glad to see you." Complicated as it may be she found comfort in the multi-colored woman, and seeing her again soothed a part of Asteria's soul that she had not even realized was raw.

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