Life. It was a funny thing, Taigi had decided during her star quest. She had met some very interesting, nice new friends, she had seen some interesting places, she had looked at the stars...but she was still stuck on her constellation. She had stared and stared many a night, but she couldn't seem to find any new constellations that spoke to her. Perhaps she needed to do a bit of soul searching first. So, rather than lay out during the evening as she had taken to, she decided to spend some time moving around during the day. That way she could think, rather than just look at what her future might hold.
During her daytime travels, she found that she thought back to her family. Her spacy mother, her caring father, and her many siblings that she missed. Ah, she wondered if any of them had found their constellation yet. So many of them took after their father that she had no doubt that some had succeeded already. And then there were the rest of them that took after their mother. It was hard enough to focus on catching a meal, let alone finding out your inner meaning and discovering a new constellation for it! This pack had some high expectations...but it was her pack. And she wanted desperately to get back to it. So she put her nose to the grindstone and tried to think about something that wasn't her family.
It was pretty hard work, though. Any thought she had would bring her mind right back to her family. Specifically her mother. Taigi still hoped the stars would speak to her like they did to her mother, but still they were silent. It was kind of frustrating if she was honest with herself. If she could speak to them then certainly they'd help her out and point her in the right direction of her constellation. Turning her eyes upward, she stared at the blue sky and tried to sniff out where her spot in the sky would be. It reminded her of something Namid would do, though, and she sighed softly. Maybe she was just doomed to never return home.
She walked for what felt like days. A friendly male joined up with her for a while and they walked together, getting to know one another enough for Taigi to agree to spend an evening with him. In the morning he was gone, leaving her even more lonely than before. She continued to wander for days, staring at the sky every night, hoping the constellation would just jump out in front of her. No luck. Taigi decided she'd head back home and see if the pack would let her return. She was so homesick that she actually felt ill. She ate some grass as she walked to try and settle her stomach, but it didn't help. She couldn't remember feeling so sad in her whole life! Obviously she'd remain a 'child' forever in the eyes of her pack, but at this point she couldn't care less.
One night, though, a thought came to her. She lifted her head in interest as she thought through her idea. What if...that was who she was? What drove her to succeed and thrive and be happy? Her family! Her mother, her father, her siblings...some day pups of her own...
Taigi instantly turned her eyes to the sky and, as if it had been sitting there all along just waiting for her to discover it, she saw the stars line up. She drew an invisible line between the bright dots in the sky, her tail wagging furiously as it came into shape. There it was! A mother with pups all around her! Taigi lept into the air with a happy bark, laughing and running in circles. There it was! Her constellation! A mother with her pups, never alone, surrounded by family. That was exactly where she needed and wanted to be in life. Her heart ached for the family that she had, for a family of her own, to always have someone to cuddle and snuggle and take care of.
She set off the next morning after a bit of a rest, trotting happily in the direction of her pack. She felt like a new wild dog now that she had succeeded. She was so excited to go home and find which of her siblings were back, too. She had been gone for so long, she wondered if she'd be the last to return! She hoped not...that would be kind of embarrassing. She knew she couldn't be the first one back, though. She had siblings that were far smarter and stronger than her that probably knew their constellation long before they had gone out on their quest. She just hoped that any stragglers would come home soon so they could all be together again.
The walk home seemed so short. It might have been because Taigi jogged the whole way back. Her heart felt light and her spirit soared with the birds overhead that she chased until she found the familiar scent of home. It made her pause for a moment and look over her shoulder at the land she had just come from. It had certainly been an experience out there. She had probably been gone for a month total, but it felt like so much longer. But now she was home, she had her constellation, she could pick her future career from here...it was all falling into place! All that was left was finding a nice male to settle down with and start a family with. She wondered if she'd ever come across any of the males she had met out in the rouge lands. There were many of them that had been very nice to her and the one she had spent the night with had made her particularly bubbly to be around. But that was something to think about later, she told herself as she faced forward again. Now it was time to go home and reunite with her family.
[1017 words]
