It has been too long since Meixing has left her island.

One year bleeds into another--

--and Meixing remembers washing up here, three years ago now. She remembers being young. Dreaming of seeing the entire world, of watching the grass cycle through green and yellow and brown beneath her paws, of chasing clouds into the night.

What had happened to those whimsical fantasies?

She's settled.

Her life has become predictable, and she's found comfort in that. She has Alduin, and Yuelin.

She doesn't know if she has Hua anymore. In the back of her mind, she realizes that the thought of Hua's absence doesn't bother her anymore.

She and Hua haven't been close for a long time. Not since the illness.

Meixing is startled out of her thoughts when she steps on something sharp. Frowning, she looks down, and finds that the shaft of a feather had been sticking out of a patch of mud. She shakes out her paw, wrinkling her nose at the little spot of blood that's welled up from her pad.