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Apparently they were getting close to Rasali’s hive. Rasali couldn’t see it. Of course she’d never come at her hive from the direction of The Middle of Nowhere, Swamptown. They’d also taken an incredibly roundabout route for safety’s sake. Still, as Rasali and Luxara closed in on Four Fronds, the trees only seemed to thin. The leaves and branches littering the forest floor barely crunched beneath Rasali’s feet before being rendered to ash like everything surrounding them. It was eerie how bright the forest was with only stumps and scorched tree trunks, but no leaves to provide coverage.

After a while of travelling through the mess the fire had made, Rasali took to walking with her eyes trained down at the ground. With any luck she’d see the ground turn from dry to moist as they neared the hot springs. She was much more keen on stumbling upon her lusus than whatever burned husk remained of her hive.

Rasali’s lips pressed together in anguished determination. Of all the worst-case scenarios she’d imagined, somehow she hadn’t considered this—having her home taken away from her. Sure, she had brightmares of imprisonment, of not being able to return, but to have her safe place just be erased like that… If her dedication to the Initiative wasn’t resolute, now she literally had nowhere else to go.

With everything she’d lost thus far, Rasali would be damned if that list was to include her lusus. For the longest time she’d been content to leave her nightly life separate from her rebel activities. She no longer had the luxury. She’d grab her lusus, whatever was left of her personal belongings, and hightail it back to the swamp… back home, Rasali reminded herself.

Blessedly, Luxara was not only a troll of the Four Fronds deep forest, but also one who would agree to help guide Rasali back to her hive. The main roads would most certainly have checkpoints with guards—especially those near the trains closest to the swamp where the rebels had lost their pursuers, and especially near the hives of those personally known as Phoenix Initiative members by one Kursha Vidari.

Rasali grimaced and used her anger to push herself forward, even though her legs ached from all the walking. Her body may have been tired, but mentally and emotionally, Rasali was more than ready to get this quest over with.

”Sorry again… For dragging you out like this, Luxara. I know you agreed to help and all, but I also know I can be kinda… pushy about stuff.”

Luxara was good people, Rasali decided. Of course, she’d decided that back when they’d all been risking their lives to save the remaining Initiative members on the road trip from Hell. Rasali just liked to remind herself when people were nice and did nice things.

”Gosh, you’d think after the swamp any one of them would be fighting each other for a reason to walk on dry ground again, debris be damned.” Rasali herself couldn’t help but hope her single pair of close-toed boots had survived the fire. Any more of this hiking-in-sandals nonsense and her feet were just going to calcify into hooves.

At the very least her callouses hadn’t expanded so far as to prevent her from feeling the ground familiarly sink beneath her feet. There had been enough brush remaining she hadn’t anticipated their arrival at the springs quite this fast. It was only a bit more hiking before they ended up within eyesight of her hive…

More importantly: ”Dad? Dad, are you around? Papa..?”

Rasali did her best not to shout outright, for fear of royalist operative sneaking around in the bushes. Still she was certain she’d spotted a particularly bright patch among everything dusted in gray ash.

There was a low moan and a great deal of splashing as the wide form of Rasali’s lusus rose up from the water down at the springs.

The relief Rasali was experiencing was palpable. She only seemed to glancingly register what Luxara was saying as she slid down the nearby embankment to meet her lusus halfway.

A fine mist blew off of Kappadad's beak as he reopened his nostrils and shook excess water from his hair. Rasali paid no mind to his waterlogged state and ran full-force into his abdomen. It was more like running headlong into a wall than a hug given Kappadad's broad anatomy. Neither troll nor lusus seemed to pay the awkwardness of the greeting much mind.

When Rasali pulled away, Kappadad continued to sit on his haunches and stare down at his charge.

"I... Yeah. I know. I have explaining to do. PLEASE don't remind me." Rasali mumbled beneath her father's solemn stare.

If Kappadad had eyebrows or a facial structure capable of portraying emotion he would have given Rasali a skeptical look. He groaned lowly and slapped his tail once against the rocky edge of the spring. Rasali responded to the action with a deep frown.

"I couldn't just LEAVE you! You would've been JUST as worried if you hadn't heard from me again, so don't give me no excuses. Coming back was a no-brainer." Rasali scowled and jabbed her lusus in the underbelly with a finger. Kappadad blinked. Checkmate.

"Besides," Rasali acquiesced. "We're not going to be here long. And I've got Luxara here to help keep watch!" Rasali gestured wildly in Luxara's direction as though it would better justify her actions.

Kappadad glanced over Rasali's shoulder at the other greenblooded girl. He either nodded or just blinked very intensely. Either way the gesture seemed about as close to approval as one would get from this lusus.

"Please. If there's nothing left to take, just tell me now. If there's anything still salvageable, I wanna take it with me. I gotta. I... We lost so much already."

Rather than watch Rasali grovel any longer, Kappadad turned away and lowered himself onto his forelegs. Carefully as he could with his bulk, he proceeded forward into the bushes--in the direction of Rasali's hive. Rasali perked up immediately. That must have meant there was at least something over there to return to.

She shot a look back to Luxara before rushing after her lusus. "I'll be right back, I promise!"