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For Meixing!<3

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❁

Yoshi and Honoka hadn’t returned home yet…

It had been quite a while since the empress had sent them out on the scouting mission. The only knowledge of their presence had been the wolves they had sent in her direction, but besides that there had been no sign of the two in months. In an assignment where she had sent her cousin and lady-in-waiting to seek out missing and new members alike…they had possibly gone missing in the process.

Izumi frequented the lands outside the dynasty. Not to explore like she usually did, but to search for any possible sign of the pair. Day by day, anxiousness made her tail flicker behind her and nose twitch, constantly on the lookout for a scent trail that would lead her to them – but to no avail. She might even have to send out a search party if their departure extended. Of course, the two of them were adults and maybe it wouldn’t have done well to stress so much; but it was her people that were missing. In the dead of winter, no less.

The willows were no different; there was no sign of them anywhere – or had the cold begun to make her nostrils sting? She couldn’t tell, but the fatigue in her paws didn’t give her much time to think. She rested herself atop a fallen log between the forests of frozen willows, breathing out clouds of condensed air that fogged whenever she breathed.

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When she had first washed up on the shores of this new world, Meixing had frequented the willows. Her thoughts had been scattered and her identity had been unclear; the swaying boughs of willow trees and the soft, peaty grass beneath her paws had provided her with a respite. Now, as she swims the strait between her island and the mainland, she feels an intense sense of nostalgia.

She and Hua had been children then. Now they are Empresses.

With a fond smile on her lips, Meixing steps out of the water and onto the white sand. It's warm from daylight, and shifts gently beneath her pads as she shakes to rid herself of excess water. She yawns, stretching her jaws wide, and considers the forest before her.

It beckons. She enters.

Her paws pound over leaf litter as she breaks into a run. She runs for the sheer joy of it, wind whipping her face and running cold fingers through her wet fur. She runs and runs, until--

A wolf!

She slows as she catches a flash of black and white fur through the trailing leaves. Curious, she approaches.

"Hello," says Meixing, her voice strong and confident. She is not a child anymore; she has grown into leadership. "I do not suppose that you are lost?"

Even after so many months, her Common retains a distinctly foreign accent.