---

It'd been an accident. A slip of the paw, during a storm, sending her tumbling into the water.

Choumi was not a strong swimmer.

But it'd been painless - just a dream, memories of her world before this one. Echo's funny rasping laugh, the one only Midge could really tug free of his shadow-wreathed mind, and the smell of sharp clove and cinnamon, rising on the steam from fresh, crisp muffins. The long silence cloying to her larynx even in this new body, and the sharpness of her fangs when it came to protecting herself. Some things good, some things bad, all of them making what was once home.

It wasn't homesickness she felt, when the sand took shape under her paws. The storm had just broken, the sea dark as ink under the moonless night. Saltwater sloughed off her sopping pelt, but Choumi stood on four strong paws with her eyes sharp, ears keen, and faculties returned to her.

She didn't realize what had happened at first. She felt the same; tired, perhaps, and wet and cold but not new or altered. Just a difficult swim, an accident, and a few scattered thoughts of her world before. Dawn began to turn the Queen's Rest from shadowed and monochrome to grey, filtering in more and more color to the world around her as Choumi groomed the water off her coat, eventually realizing as the light brightened the mahogany tones of her pelt that something was...unusual. Her limbs held different patterns, colors. Dark paws the color of freshly overturned earth settled atop the light layer of frost, and Choumi tucked her nose into her now-dried pelt to inhale deeply.

Just her own scent; none of the myriad that marked her as one of Fujiwara's own. She didn't expect to be attacked for it, but Choumi huffed with displeasure. A patch of grass before her was quickly pounced upon, and the woman wasted no time rolling in it in an effort to return the appropriate scent to her pelt. She didn't know what had happened - were the waters around here magic? Sorcery in this land was strange and unpredictable, so unlike what she was used to.

But she felt alright, and like herself. Whatever she looked like now, Choumi could still feel the distinct scar at the base of her neck tug with her movement. Her packmates would know her, she felt certain; if they did not, she would try not to take it too personally.

---

❁

While it wasn’t uncommon for the Dynasty to have visitors pop up from time to time, having them tread this deeply into the territory was rather unexpected. Especially when it was so early in the morning, too. Izumi awoke from her sleep this morning from yet another nightmare – these episodes would be the death of her – and maybe it was because of the cold sweat she’d woken up in that spiked her paranoia.

As she waltzed out the opening of the den, it was the movement of a reddish pelt that beamed through the forest – and Izumi paused to assess who it was, and how long the stranger had been walking along the territory. Her gaze narrowed – It certainly wasn’t someone she recognized, though it was hard to make a proper assessment of that from where she stood.

The crane leapt down the rocks of the den site, slinking her form through the trees to quietly close in on the wolf nearby, until eventually letting out a chuff when she got close enough.

......

.....wait a second…

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---

Chou rolled to her paws after a few moments, snow and moss scrubbed into the fibers of her freshly-donned pelt. She shook fiercely, before a low chuff caught her attention. It was firm, commanding, and Choumi's attention snapped to the direction it'd come from with rigid tension and pinpoint accuracy.

Izumi stood tall in the night, snowy pelt glittering in what dim cast-off sunlight there was filtering through the shadows like the crests of the waves not too far off. Choumi ducked her head, tucking a paw to her chest in a hasty but courteous bow. Such formalities didn't come naturally to her, but her lupine instincts demanded some degree of deference displayed to a higher-ranking wolf all the same. Despite the bow, her tail swayed high and cheerful behind her. The butterfly was in a pleasant mood - feeling fresh, and relieved that whatever mystical phenomenon had just occurred to her hadn't taken her away from the pack she'd pledged herself to.

She didn't want to have to start over, again.

Her jaws parted, the Fujiwara crane's name invisible but felt between her teeth. Izumi. Choumi was sure she would not say it with the right accentuation; she was not a native speaker of Japanese, but was quickly learning to understand it from living amongst the clan. But this was a new body, a fresh start, and she didn't think about her limitations at first; she only wished to greet her leader, assure her it was indeed Chou standing before her.

Her teeth clicked, the only sound except a fizzling exhale that actually filled the air, aside from the sigh of the wind and the whisper of the far-off sea at the shore.

Her tongue was blank, but her mind buzzed with a staticky fear, old and rancid where it had rotted in the woman for too long.

Choumi's expression fell from its mirthful grin, meeting Izumi's lilac gaze evenly.

---

❁

Ch-Choumi!?

The recognition had caught her by surprise, and if it weren’t for the scent and her silent disposition, the empress likely wouldn’t recognize her at all. The young brunette had been missing for some time now, yet Izumi did not expect her to come back in a completely different form.

There was a pang in her chest with this acknowledgment, and an uneasy swirling within the pit of her stomach. If that were the case, then something bad must’ve happened to her before. Something that caused her to be brought back to life. Within these lands, the crane hadn’t known how reincarnation worked, but what else could be the case?

Seating herself, she’d raise both of her paws and place them against the young butterfly’s cheeks, her brow furrowed with concern as she held her face to meet her eyes. Choumi…what happened to you? I am sorry I hadn’t found you sooner… She expressed solemnly.

---

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---

The recognition in Izumi's shocked cry was an immense relief. Chou's tail lightly kissed her flanks with the force of her tail's wagging, a grin breaking like the dawn across her features.

If anything did happen to cause Choumi's return to harbor a different form, the once-werewolf did not recall it. That small mercy was one that didn't even cross her mind - there'd been a seamless transition of consciousness, devoid of pain or cognitive dissonance, and she was simple thrilled to be home.

She craned her neck slightly, brushing her chin across the rich chocolate pelt as if to say check out the new threads, Izumi, before the Empress closed the distance between them in that eerily graceful way of hers. Choumi found her fluffy cheeks gently cradled in a pair of ink-splashed paws, lilac eyes seeking her own, their delicate hues faint in the dim dawn light. Choumi swished her tail across the sandy beach and grass beneath her, huffing fondly at Izumi's concern.

It warmed her heart to see the woman's care conveyed so, but it equally worried the young woman to know that she'd worried Izumi so much. She outstretched a paw to set it in the Empress' chest fluff delicately, a reassuring pat as she lightly shook her head with a soft smile. There is nothing to apologize for. Whatever had happened, Choumi knew it hadn't been Izumi's fault, and she would do her best not to see the blame placed on the silent crane's shoulders.