Zana

It’d been foggy, the night she decided to leave. She hadn’t had a plan, just a knowledge that she had to. She couldn’t stay, couldn’t remain- the itch beneath her skin drove her on, pushed her to slip out in the middle of the night. She didn’t say good bye, didn’t tell anyone, didn’t tell her parents or her sister Idlin, she just left.

Left into the night, into the darkness and the fog, left to find out why she had to leave.

She found the Amazons three days later, and so found her destiny. The itch that had forced her to leave, that had been driving her ever since she was young, finally calmed. Calmed and settled and made it clear that she had found where she was supposed to be.

She enjoyed living with them, hunting for food and building nests to sleep in each night, huddling together with her Amazon sisters for warmth and comfort. Enjoyed learning how to navigate by the stars and the landscape, learning how to traverse the different lands of the different gods as they traveled from place to place, making each one a temporary home before moving on. She enjoyed it all, and enjoyed it even more when she became joined to Rhea, to her love, and felt that last little hole in her heart- one that she didn’t even realize existed- close.

But almost losing Amarice hurt, more than she realized it would- she had always considered her a sister, almost a replacement for Idlin, and the entire time she was healing, even if she didn’t obsess as hard as Ephiny had, she had been worried. And thankful when they all sat down and talked about staying. Because to lose one of her sisters, to lose Rhea, would destroy her. Destroy her happiness, shatter the heart she had put together, and she couldn’t bear to live through that. So to stay in the clan, to take up a positon as a member of the Queen’s Guard, suited her perfectly.

They had had their adventures, had had their fun, but it was time to settle.

She and Rhea also took up caring for the children of the clan- unable to have their own, they all but adopted the littles ones who were bought to be trained or resold by the clan, happy with the temporary motherhood each hatchling offered. It was a simpliness that she enjoyed, though it brought up old memories she hadn’t thought about in a long, long time. Memories of her parents, of her sister, of her old home- things she missed, things that still hurt to think about today.

So when Tamora announced that a party was being sent to a clan that bore the same name as her old ones, she immediately agreed to go. Because if that was her old home, maybe she could make amends for some of the wrongs she had done by leaving the way she did, all those years ago.

It was nothing like the home she remembered, though it had been years. Years since she had gone back, years since she had seen the home that had once been hers, to the point that it was barely her home anymore. How could it be, when nothing was the same?

She was almost to tears, glad for the masks that made up the Amazons’ Queen’s Guard uniforms for hiding her face. Only to find herself striking out at the dragon that had launched herself towards the Princess, tackling her with the other Guards to protect their Princess.

Only for it to be Idlin. Beautiful, lovely, fully grown Idlin.

She begged for her sister’s life, and was granted it, granted permission for her to join the clan, and for that she was forever grateful. Because even though looking at her sister hurt now- the attack had left her wounded, scarred, but at least she was alive- it was at least her. She had Idlin back, and was grateful for that fact that she did.

Because it helped to heal the guilt she had carried for so long, to set to rest the voice in the back of her head that had blamed her, and for that she was glad.

She had everything she ever wanted, and so was just glad.