By the time Rachias had woken up the sun was already well into the sky, beating down on her resting body with rays of harsh heat. The woman that she had met the previous day, Ayegali, had told her of the pack AniWaya and the safety of taking refuge near their borders. She had been uncertain at first, though the seemingly wise woman had assured her that they were a pack of peace and, if Rachi showed no ill will toward their members or their lands, that they would leave her be. It seemed that the woman had told the truth, for Rachias rose in peace just as she had laid down in peace the night previously. There were no scents lingering near her, nothing to send her into a guarded state, just the quiet songs of birds as they passed through the trees ahead.
The young woman didn't linger near the pack lands for longer than she had to, immediately rising to set off further into the lands, choosing to head north to cut around the clearly marked borders. It had been a long time since she had been anywhere near the lands, living off to the west with Arkham and her children. Somehow she had imagined that once she returned everything would seem like some alien planet, completely different and not at all how she remembered it, but that hadn't been the case. The scents were all the same, despite the new ones that seemed mingled in here and there, and the lands were just the same as she remembered. There was also something else that she remember, even if faintly, that hit her on her way down the very outskirts of the beach.
Her once calm walk turned quickly into something of confusion. The scent was only faintly memorable, something that barely triggered thoughts and feelings in the back of her mind and her heart. She wanted to say it wasn't true, to ignore the scent that lingered and even grew as she continued at a slow pace down the beach. Before long she stopped, staring off in the distance and finally deciding that trail led to the ship that lay in ruins just off the coast. She'd always thought her dead, that she had run off to waste away by herself, and even when she was much younger she was sure that Gabriel and everyone else that had known her had thought the same thing. It had been so long since that scent had filled her nose and, despite that it suddenly seemed clear as day, perhaps she was wrong and confused.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she turned off toward the ship, making her way reluctantly across the sands. It didn't take her long to find the sloping plank upwards, which she began up carefully, until the point that she reached the top. The scent was stronger at the door than anywhere else and it almost frightened the young woman. She was ready to turn and leave, to forget that she'd ever caught that faint scent in the air, but her heart wouldn't let her. Just like it wouldn't let her give up on Arkham being alive and like it wouldn't let her give up on Andre. "Hello?" She called out finally, reaching forward to take hold of the old door but making no other movements.
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