Nothing seemed to be going right for Neela recently; hormones leaving her in a bad mood, fighting with Tony, sickness in the mornings, even nature seemed to conspire against her with a family of cougars setting up residence far closer to Neela’s home than the pregnant collie was happy about. Academically she was aware that much of her problems simply came from her own hormones making her overly sensitive and aggressive but that didn’t stop the frustration and anger that bubbled up in her; she had dealt with this so far by slowly moving farther and farther away from Casa during the days, trying to isolate herself by merit of distance as though by removing herself from other people she could remove her frustration.

Obviously things didn’t work quite like that and that travelling brought its own problems. Neela’s most recent grievance was her feet; the litter inside her stomach seemed to be destined to be a big one and the added weight, coupled with the long distances Neela was pushing herself to walk, meant that the pads of her feet were strained and achy. Shifting into Lupus or Secui form would probably be a good idea but Neela was determined to get as much use out of her Optime form as she could before she had to shift into Lupus for the rest of the pregnancy; a date that was fast approaching.

With a sigh Neela stopped and leaned against a tree, eyes drifting down over the source of her problems. Neela’s stomach had ballooned over the past week and her pregnancy would be obvious to even the most dimwitted of observers. The foot long serrated knives strapped to her legs now that her belt wouldn’t fit were equally obvious; Neela wasn’t in great condition to fight but she was far from helpless and advertised that readily.

Travelling south had brought Neela familiar faces and a brief bit of happiness in visiting Jace but not the solitude she desired so Neela had now travelled north from Casa, into the section of land nestled between New Dawn, Anathema, Casa and that odd, aggressive pack of coyote that Neela had never learnt the name of. This was familiar land to Neela; both of the packs she had called home had bordered this stretch of forest and she had spent a generous amount of time wandering through the dampwoods.

A sudden burst of nostalgia spread through Neela as she stepped into a clearing which she remembered as close to Ichika’s borders. Automatically her muzzle tilted upwards and sniffed but the flowery scent that had marked her first home was nowhere to be found; all that Neela could smell was the Anathema border to the north, its scent faint enough that back when Ichika had existed she wouldn’t have even noticed it over that scent. Suddenly feeling very tired Neela leaned back against a tree, ears twitching gratefully as she slid into the shadows cast by the leaves. Travelling long distances like she was doing was beginning to get very tiring so a short rest before heading back home seemed in order.