Acciai perched on a shelf while he watched Rio pack some last minute things. She did all of her packing last night, not that there was much to pack. She didn’t have much with her in Anathema, except a few basic items. She hadn’t slept all night, but that was fine because when she got to her new ‘humble abode’, she would be able to sleep comfortably. She made sure that her bedroom was the second thing she cleaned after she cleaned out the kitchen, so that way when she got there she could just relax for a while.

She had Vitalia saddled up and waiting for her outside the caves. She found some old saddlebags in the stables along with a saddle, which didn’t seem to belong to anyone, that she ‘borrowed’, and shoved most of the small things she had, along with a few clothing items, in them. She never rode Vitalia with a saddle, but this time she had to. It might have been a bit easier for her anyway, since she really didn’t know how to ride in the first place. She had put all the furs her mother gave her back in the furs storage room. Some other newcomer could use them; she didn’t need them anymore. She took the one white wolf pelt and placed in on Vitalia’s back, underneath the saddle that she managed to put on her. It wasn’t rocket science, and after a few moments of examining the saddle, she quickly understood how it fit on the horse.

The other various items she tucked away in the bags. She left the bowls that she had in the now vacant room because she had all that she needed back at her house. She already packed her small comb and the bottle of Vodka, which was half empty, that she always used as a disinfectant. She took her small stash of drugs with her, along with whatever she had of her herbs collection lying around. She picked up the last item she left in the room, a cool dagger she had to protect herself, just in case.

Once she had everything, she had the dagger in one hand, a satchel crisscrossed on her body, and she took the owl with her free hand. His wing still wasn’t completely healed, but he would have to fly to Halifax. She couldn’t hold him the whole way there. She left the vacant room behind her, and headed out towards the horse. Luckily, Vitalia was where she left her, at the cave entrance. She clipped the dagger to the front part of the saddle, more on the wolf pelt than the actual saddle, and got ready to hoist herself up on the saddle. She threw the bird, hoping he would take flight. That worked swimmingly, and Acciai did take flight and began circling the area in wide turns. Rio placed a foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over the horse’s back. She sat in the saddle, adjusting herself and placing both feet in the old saddle’s stirrups. She took one last look into the caves and muttered ”Goodbye Anathema…” Then she jabbed lightly backwards on the stirrups to get Vitalia moving.

The mare started off slow, but soon picked up her pace as Rio ordered her to do so in low-speech. She trotted through the lands of Anathema, not galloping yet because Rio wanted to take in the scenery one last time before she left for good. She was sad that she couldn’t see her mother before she left, but she figured they would bump into each other in the future and Rio would be able to explain herself then. The borders came sooner than she expected, and then Rio ordered Vitalia to move in a fast, steady gallop. The horse listened with no further hesitations and they were out of there with the owl following closely behind.