Perception
The crackling of flames was the first sound she heard when she opened her eyes. A little campfire lit up the center of the small clearing whose ground she found herself lying on. The velvet blanket of night had enveloped the jungle, and even her elf eyes had trouble distinguishing shapes in the blackness outside the warm light of the flames. Yet in spite of not being able to see clearly, Dorissa knew that this was not the Zul'Gurub vegetation she saw at the edge of the small clearing. There were no ruins in sight, no bars around her. They had made it. But how? And where were they?
Her eyes scanned the surroundings again. A torn blouse and a pair of filthy bloomers lay on the other side of the campfire. Her brow furrowed, and she made a mental addition to her train of thought: Where is Belfrida?
Dorissa tried hard to recall what exactly had happened when they attempted to escape Zul'Gurub. But her head ached, and recollection of the events appeared to have been temporarily wiped from her conscious and replaced with a light so strong her eyes twitched at the thought of it. She sighed and shoved the questions aside for a moment. She could always ask the priestess when she returned from wherever she had gone.
A limp sound of something being dragged along the ground caught Dorissa's attention, and a twig snapped somewhere between the trees on the opposite side of the fire. The half-elf's head turned in the direction of the noise, her heart pounding; she was certain that something very large that moved on all fours was headed towards her.
Her fingers quickly grasped her staff that lay on the ground next to her, and she turned and leaned against a tree behind her for support as she waited for the unknown creature to reveal itself. She was in no shape for battle with any of the inhabitants of the jungle, but she would fight if she had to.
The ferns parted on the other side of the fire, and an enormous, hairy beast stalked into the light. Its jaws were locked around the tail of its prey, a river crocolisk whose neck had been broken.
The creature dumped its burden on the ground, shook its long, black mane and stood up to its full height on its hind legs.
Dorissa stared at the beast, completely bewildered. Then the worgen turned its head towards her and met her eyes, a small reassuring smile playing on its black lips and in its enormous, emerald eyes.
The half-elf's eyes narrowed. "… Belfrida?"
The worgen let out a rough snort. Its fur dropped from its body, and its bones cracked and groaned as it returned to its normal height and size, and within seconds the priestess stood before her, a half-smirk on her dark lips as she cocked a brow at the other woman. "Indeed," Belfrida said, reaching for her clothes on the ground to cover up her bare figure. "I hope this is edible," she added with a toss of her head towards the crocolisk. "I've no idea what it is, but it looked tasty in the water."
Dorissa snickered. "It is." A thought then occurred to her. "When did you become able to control the curse?"
The human looked at her in confusion while her slender fingers began re-braiding her long hair. "You gave me that gift?"
"I… What?"
Belfrida's brow furrowed, but she then seemed to understand. "You don't remember what happened in Zul'Gurub, do you?"
The half-elf shook her head slowly as she tried to recall. "We were surrounded… And then everything was lit up somehow. I reached out to touch the light... That is the last I remember."
"Well, it would certainly have been odd if you didn't remember that; it practically blinded everyone around you. And I must confess that I have no idea exactly what it was you did. Something impossibly powerful happened when you touched that light you saw. It exploded everywhere around you, and we were all but literally blown away by the sheer force. You seemed possessed by a form of energy from another world. Somehow you transferred some of that energy to me and locked up the curse, preventing it from lashing out without my consent. You kept all the trolls at bay and grew wings, and then you lifted me up and carried us out of the ruins," Belfrida finished, her eyes carefully searching the other woman's face for a reaction.
Dorissa simply stared at her in disbelief. "But… I don't… That can't be right?"
"I take it you haven't noticed it yet then?"
"Noticed what?"
Belfrida chewed her lip, now looking slightly nervous. "Look at your right hand."
Confused, the half-elf lifted her hand and looked at her palm. "I don't see anything?"
"Hold it towards the flames and turn it in the light."
Following the instructions, Dorissa now saw what the priestess was referring to: the skin of her hand was covered in shimmering, delicate markings. The pattern looked a little like lace painted onto her skin in the shapes of eerie celestial bodies, silvery watercolour moons and stars encircling one another on her pale skin.
Pushing up her sleeve, she found that the pattern continued up her arm, and with slight alarm Dorissa pulled off the dodgy harness and her blouse, exposing her upper body in the light of the fire.
Her entire right side was covered in the unearthly markings. A glance at her bare feet revealed that it was unnecessary to strip herself of the sarong; they definitely continued down her right leg, ending on her foot.
She stood up, and turning around to let the light fall on her back, Dorissa twisted and turned her head to see as much of her back as she could. Normally she would have been able to see one of the sharp points of the star-shaped scar on her back, but there was nothing within her sight but the strange painting of shimmering patterns on her skin.
"Are there lines on my back?" she asked, looking up at the priestess.
"Lines?"
"Yes, in the shape of an eight-point star."
Belfrida stepped closer and examined the half-elf's back, carefully placing a finger on the strange new decoration. "No, no star."
"But that's impossible…" She desperately ran her hand up and down the skin of her back, but the scar was gone, every mark the runic icicles had left erased from her body. "What is this?!"
The human shook her head apologetically. "I have no idea. I noticed it after we landed here; you lost consciousness and collapsed the second your feet touched the ground. It must have appeared at some point during the happenings inside Zul'Gurub. Are you completely certain you remember nothing at all besides that light?"
Dorissa closed her eyes tightly and rubbed her forehead in frustration, concentrating hard to recall something, anything that might reveal what in the name of Azeroth had happened to her body.
And something did materialise, but somehow the half-elf knew that telling Belfrida would bring her no answers. She sighed roughly and spoke anyway: "Did you hear a voice?" she asked, turning towards the other woman again.
The priestess studied her face. "A voice?"
"Yes," Dorissa said, slowly sitting down by the fire again. "A female voice, I believe. Said something about… Oh, what was it, I can't recall…" It felt as if a barrier of wet cotton wool had wrapped itself around her memories. Everything was fuzzy and heavy, and it was somehow difficult moving around inside her head.
Strength. Something about strength. Giving? … No, taking. "Take… Take my strength, child."
"Child? And you said you were what, three hundred and twenty-seven years old?"
"Twenty-four," the half-elf corrected as she slowly pulled her shirt and harness back on. "And I never claimed it made sense, Bel."
"Indeed, you didn't." Belfrida looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, who do you think it was then?" she asked. "Your mother?"
"No. My mother is long gone. Had her spirit decided to come haunt me randomly I highly doubt her voice would have sounded like that."
"And you're sure it wasn't your own voice in your head somehow? Not that I believe you've gone bonkers or anything like that," the priestess quickly added in a most diplomatic manner, "but hearing voices is usually not such a good sign."
"I'm sure," the half-elf said dryly. "It sounded… otherworldly. It was beautiful and melodious, clear and soft…" Something about hearing herself speak the adjectives that best fit the sound of the voice felt strangely unsettling, as if she already knew who the mystery female was. Or was supposed to know. But something about it also made her feel that she did not wish to know. That it would not make things easier.
And then the priestess uttered the words that made Dorissa realise exactly why she felt that way: "I'm aware it's a long shot... But what about that goddess you spoke of?"
It felt as if her heart dropped several inches and landed with a splash in her stomach. "That… can't be. Elune is not real."
"But what if she is? Is your entire society not built around the assumption that she is?" Belfrida said, a strange sort of critical excitement creeping into her almost neutral tone.
"The elven society is. Where I live it is pretty much the opposite."
"Well, it does seem that you're the minority in this matter, does it not?"
"Belfrida, it's not an option for me to start believing now just because our situation is a little unfortunate," Dorissa said, sitting down across from the human with a light sigh. "If that was all it took I'd not have stopped believing in the first place."
"But why exactly isn't it an option? I must say I find you rather spoiled for simply refusing the thought of something watching over you right now," the priestess said, defiantly crossing her arms. "I never had the luxury of a choice myself. Would it really be so awful if in fact you were wrong?"
"Yes! Of course it would, don't you see? Everything I am today is built on the foundation of being alone. If she is in fact real it would mean that not only has she given me no sign of that fact for over three hundred years, she has also ignored my every call and desperate plea for help for as long as I have lived!"
"She did not ignore you today," the human pointed out with a challenging expression on her exotic face.
"I am not having this discussion. You know nothing of the elven beliefs, nor do you actually know enough about my life to have a justifiable opinion about this subject. So what makes you think yourself a better judge than me?"
"Exactly what you just said. Unlike you I can look at this issue objectively and not in the dark, depressing light you seem to have cast on it."
"Dark and depressing, that came from you of all people?! Well, you certainly know what you're talking about, I'll give you that," Dorissa sneered, suddenly irritated that she had sat down so that she was unable to glare are the other woman at an even level.
"I have perfectly valid reasons for not being all rosy and cheerful, and you know that," the priestess said, her voice hard. "But seeing that we're free now and you might just have gained a whole new perspective to your existence I really don't see how you want to justify this ridiculous determination to be miserable."
"I was miserable when I did believe in her! I have no intention of going back to that. Can't you understand at all?"
"No. No, I can't. Because unlike you I do long for the blissful ignorance that used to be my life. I would still have been happily married, I'd have been safe and content 'till the end of my bloody boring days. I'd give anything to have that back."
"I know, Bel. But we are very different, you and I. I know that just because we disagree it doesn't mean you're wrong. I just can't make myself consider the possibility that you aren't. You have no idea how disastrous that would be for me, for my entire life as it is now."
"I understand what you're saying. I just can't sympathise with it," Belfrida concluded.
"That's your problem, not mine." Dorissa studied her hand while the silence of an abruptly ended argument settled between them. "Can you remove these?" she then asked, glancing at the priestess whose expression turned reluctant.
"I highly doubt it," the human simply said.
"Will you try?"
Belfrida sighed in frustration, but she sat down on her knees before Dorissa and gestured for her to lean closer. With her slender fingers she traced the back of the half-elf's hand to examine the pattern. She then sent a warm stream of healing energies through her hand and into the other woman's skin.
But instead of vanishing like they were intended to, the strange markings absorbed the energy that was pumped into them, and a wild burst of light washed up Dorissa's arm and down the whole right side of her body.
The two women gasped and stared at the now brightly glowing markings, the priestess in wonder and the half-elf in fright.
"I've never seen anything like this before in my life," Belfrida said quietly as they watched the shining of the light slowly fade away.
"Neither have I," Dorissa mumbled. "But whatever it is I certainly hope it isn't permanent."
Nighttime in the jungle was much more bearable for the death knight's skin than the basking heat of the sun. The light of day was unnecessary to his eyes and often presented in a hindering rather than helpful manner, so now, enveloped in darkness, Zaladin could see his surroundings clearly without difficulty, the distinct shapes of every leaf and every root in the ground visible in greatest detail, a perk to being born a being of the wild and risen a creature of the dark. A living troll's eyesight was very sharp, but the runes glowing within his empowered his vision, allowing him to clearly absorb everything that went by around him with very little effort.
But he took little notice to his surroundings. With every step bringing him closer to finding Dorissa there was no point in trying to force himself to focus on the present rather than the future he was unable to imagine what would bring. His usually so dominating rational side told him that it was completely pointless and did him no good clinging to the thought of something he could not actually see before him. But rationality was not an option. Rationality wanted him to succumb to the very likely theory that Dorissa was no longer among the living. But he could not afford to think that.
Rahsi had barely communicated with him since he had rather physically put her in place, and the words she did say were - to his tremendous satisfaction - strictly limited to the relevance of the task she had been given.
But even if she was quiet, Zaladin knew that the huntress had to be thinking exactly the same as he was.
The trail they were following had taken them deep into the jungle. They had passed many small ruins, fought their way through nigh impenetrable walls of vegetation and crossed the river that flowed into the dark waters of Lake Nazferiti. The tracks were well concealed in the undergrowth, but there was no mistake as to where they went. Unless they suddenly took an unmotivated and sharp turn to the right, the troll that had taken Dorissa had without a doubt brought her to the crumbling remains of the once so great Gurubashi capital, Zul'Gurub. And fallen or not, the Gurubashi tribe was not something Zaladin had any great desire to cross. At this point, however, it did not look like he was given a choice. He had never set foot anywhere near the ruins, but even so the death knight sensed that they were close.
His theory was confirmed when Rahsi suddenly raised a bony, mail-clad hand to halt his approach. She glanced up at him and held a finger to her lips before she carefully pushed aside a few particularly heavy ferns to clear the view of what was ahead.
A worn path lay before them flanked by two great cobra statues rising high in the moonlight, marking the beginning of what Zaladin knew would be the entrance of the capital.
"How do you want to proceed?" the huntress asked quietly, her eyes fixed on the empty path ahead.
"We keep to the trail."
"But Zaladin, look at the tracks; they're mixing with dozens of other trails. This troll is not alone, and going in directly we'll practically be ringing their doorbell! There must be a safer way in. Perhaps we can gain access from above by climbing the wall to the-"
"No. That way we would lose the trail and spend precious time looking for it inside. We enter cautiously, but we do so as he did."
Rahsi snorted. "Whatever," she said irritably, but she and her lion followed his lead as the death knight soundlessly began the ascent of the path.
The infamous ruins were dark and seemingly unguarded when they reached the final steps up to the entrance. Zaladin quietly peeked around the corner of the last wall. He was not certain what he had expected, but he did not feel reassured at all. No guards in sight did not necessarily mean that it was safe to let your guard down, and so the death knight never did. Something about the abandoned atmosphere did not seem right. He sensed that something was stirring inside the ruins that stood before him, grey and ominous in the moonlight.
"Do you see anything?" Rahsi whispered. He could see her fel green eyes nervously flickering from his face to the darkness around the ancient jade statues behind them, alertly observing for hidden enemies between the figures.
"Nothing," Zaladin whispered back. "But that does not mean that there is nothing there."
"Well, obviously," the blood elf said, some of her old attitude creeping back into her voice. "Knowing for certain would make a fairly crappy foundation for an ambush, don't you think?"
"I will not hesitate to hurt you again," Zaladin simply murmured as he slipped around the corner and cautiously moved along the wall of the narrow entrance.
Upon stepping through the opening and into the ruins, it became clear that pursuing the troll that had Dorissa would no longer be so simple. The tracks were invisible on the hard surface of the worn stones on which they stood, and a quick examination of the soil at the foot of the nearby steps that led onto the path revealed that it had been trodden flat by literally hundreds of other trolls quite recently. The death knight did not like the look of it, and he sensed that the blood elf at his side tensed, too. She quietly grasped her bow and readied an arrow on the string.
A low, guttural rumble to their left caught their attention: Rahsi's lion had quietly trudged away from them, stopping at the edge of the low stone plateau. It bent down and sniffed the ground below, and with an eager huff it turned its head again and looked at Rahsi.
The huntress followed and examined the spot the great cat had marked. "Good job," she whispered sweetly, lovingly scratching the beast's enormous mane.
Zaladin's lip twitched impatiently. "What is it?" he asked irritably.
"He found the tracks," the huntress said quietly, sending him a hateful glance. "So you'd better be a little more thankful."
"I do not do 'thankful', regrettably," the death knight said indifferently, motioning for Rahsi to get moving.
"Tch. Stereotype," she snorted, but she obeyed and soundlessly resumed the pursuit of Dorissa's captor.
The unknown troll had followed a narrow path that led them past an empty watch hut and towards a little lake at the base of a small waterfall to their left. The lake water was held back by a formation of slippery rocks, but it flowed on through the cracks between them and fell steeply down to their right, crashing into the small river far below.
"Don't touch the water," the huntress said as she followed her light-footed feline companion out onto the wet rocks. "It's teaming with frenzies."
A glance at the dark surface revealed nothing, but Zaladin had no intention of question the blood elf's intuition; his own told him not to.
They continued along the narrow path on the other side, keeping as close to the outer wall of the ruins as possible. Occasionally they passed more of the brittle watch huts along the edge of the hill. Inside a few of them they spotted groups of slumbering Gurubashi, but as they posed no immediate threat to their task they quietly agreed upon ignoring their presence.
It did not take long before they could see the end of the green path ahead. It met with a wider and more worn trail that continued to the right as was visible through the many ferns and huts alongside it. Their tracks, however, continued for a few meters and then made a turn to the left and disappeared up the steep hill around the corner of the wall.
Voices to their right made them halt, and Zaladin took cover among the tall growths near the wall while Rahsi carefully crept closer in the cover of the darkness to assess the situation.
"What do you see?" the death knight whispered, his eyes fixed on the huntress' profile.
"Four trolls. Big ones. Next to the hut over there," she said, not taking her eyes off the spot where the trolls were positioned.
"Guards?"
"No. Civilians. But they'll see us, that's for sure."
"Take them out."
He was pleasantly surprised when the huntress did not as much as cock a brow at the order. She simply raised her bow and brought a second arrow to the string. Aiming with impressive precision she fired them both at once, and with lightning speed she snatched two more from the quiver and repeated the action.
The first two hit their targets, and a muffled outburst of surprise was silenced by the second pair, leaving the night once again disturbingly quiet beneath the heavy canopy.
"The path is clear," Rahsi said, lowering her bow but keeping it close at hand.
Zaladin nodded. "Move."
Passing the lifeless bodies that had had their skulls penetrated by the blood elf's swift arrows, the two reached the very corner of the wall. Rahsi carefully leaned closer to sneak a glance up the path. "It's no use. I can't see what's up there. It's too long and steep."
"We will tread lightly then," the death knight said and began to move, but the huntress held out her arm to stop him before he could continue the motion. She then kneeled down and whispered in her lion's ear: "You know what to do."
The feline immediately straightened up, and with a flick of the tail it silently disappeared around the corner and ascended the path.
"He'll be our eyes," Rahsi explained, her eyes closed in extreme concentration.
"Do you see through him?"
"No. Our bond lets me sense the world through his mind when I focus. I know what he sees through the feelings he shows me."
It made little sense to the death knight, but he chose not to comment. That lion was probably the only creature in the world capable of living alongside a person like the blood elf, so to some extent he did understand it, if only in the sense that Dorissa represented the same to him. In truth it was unexplainable, and he concluded that that was the reason the huntress' explanation was not quite tangible to his mind. Not that it really mattered anyway.
Zaladin's head snapped up, his attention suddenly caught. He had heard it, his ears had never deceived him; it was the unmistakable sound of a throwing axe being drawn. "Call your cat back," he murmured.
"Hm?" Rahsi opened her eyes groggily and looked up at him. She did not seem to have paid any attention to him for several minutes.
"Call. Your cat back. Now." But it was too late.
"Intruders!" The alarm was yelled in Zandali, and Rahsi did not understand, but Zaladin read from the sudden pained crack in her expression that the worst had already happened. "No… NO!" The tiny elf screeched and jumped out from their shelter among the ferns, ignoring every precaution they had taken to avoid being detected. She sprinted up the path towards the top of the path to come to the aid of her lion, and Zaladin looked around the corner just in time to see her caught by the arm by an enormous troll who lifted the squirming elf up and carried her into the grounds atop the hill and out of sight.
Zaladin moved quickly to follow them. Two other trolls were running down towards him, and the death knight drew his blade and hissed in Zandali: "You will let me pass. Now."
The trolls stopped and glared at him with great hostility. "Who ya be?" one of them asked.
"That is not of your concern," Zaladin said and pushed them out of the way, but he did not make it further than one step before he caught the sound of a dagger being grasped behind him, and he spun around and raised his blade just in time to block the strike the troll on his left was about to deal. He twisted his sword and disarmed the troll by severing his hand from his arm.
The death knight's green-skinned opponent growled in agonised fury at the sight of radius and ulna shining white through the blood that oozed from the arteries in his lower arm and spilled upon the ground, a scarlet puddle bathed in the white light of the moon above.
The other troll ignored his wounded ally and attacked, agilely dodging the next swing of Zaladin's blade. The Gurubashi raised his axe and managed to bury it in the death knight's chest piece. The plate held, but the dent the axe caused was deep enough to severely hinder his freedom of moment because of the strain it put on the muscles beneath.
With an irritated snarl, Zaladin used the seconds the other troll spent raising his axe for the next strike to plunge his sword through his opponent's gut. The blade pierced the green skin and came out on the other side, and the death knight wrenched it around and gave the troll a forceful kick to remove his struggling body from his sword.
When he entered the grounds, things were already spiraling out of his grasp. The huntress had been forced down on her knees. She was sobbing loudly, her arms wrapped around the lifeless body of her lion that appeared to have had its throat slit by the laughing headhunter who had his bloody blade held to Rahsi's neck. A half-circle of Gurubashi had formed around the scene, some of them carrying torches. A bonfire was being lit, and in a matter of seconds the night sky was transformed from a velvet blanket of stars to a thick, smoke-filled nothingness above them.
He did not make it far into the grounds before an alarm was shouted somewhere behind him, and the many trolls turned his way. Six other headhunters raised their axes, and within seconds Zaladin was surrounded from all sides, forced to parry the cascade of weapons that were hurled his way.
He was much faster and more skilled than they were. But they were many, and their brute strength outweighed his, however reluctantly he had to admit it. This was developing into a distinctly boring situation.
"Stop! What be all dis commotion?" The voice came from the opening to the grounds. An eccentric-looking witch doctor entered in a quick stride, pushing his way through the cluster of trolls that were battling the death knight.
He forced one of the headhunters to step aside, but by doing so he placed himself directly where Zaladin's next strike fell. Out of reflex he raised his left arm to block the sword.
The metal hit his skin and should have cut through flesh and bone, but instead an explosion of light erupted from the point of impact and hurled Zaladin through the air, his body crashing against the crumbling wall behind him.
The death knight's ears were ringing, and momentarily blinded by the brightness of the light before him he was unable to react in time when two massive trolls grasped his upper arms and pulled him to his knees, forcing his head down. He felt the cool edges of two axes rested against his neck just before his vision returned.
The first thing he saw was the troll who had somehow blasted him senseless. The stranger stood above him, studying his face with a furrowed brow. "Who ya be?" he asked, his eyes narrowing in thought.
"That is irrelevant," Zaladin hissed sharply. "We," he continued with a toss of his tusks in the direction of the still sobbing huntress who lay hugging her dead companion on the ground, "seek a female of the night elf race. We have reason to believe she was brought to Zul'Gurub not long ago. Do you know of whom I speak?"
"Ohh Zanzil, he be lookin' for de elf girl ya lost," one of the other trolls said, and a couple of the others snickered condescendingly.
"Shut up!" the witch doctor snarled, pointing his claw-like index finger at the mocking trolls.
"Where is she?" Zaladin asked, forcing patience into his voice and focusing only on the troll who was apparently Zanzil the Outcast.
Zanzil looked down at him with an irritated expression. "Elf and human priest girl escaped yesterday." He reached in through the many peculiar charms dangling around his neck and from his headpiece and pulled out a necklace familiar to Zaladin. The large glittering sapphire looked completely misplaced in the troll's hand. "Said she was Zanzil's friend. Help Zanzil she did. De mean Gurubashi can't touch Zanzil now. But she lied to Zanzil, tricked Zanzil, treacherous elf she be," he mumbled absently.
Zaladin repressed a triumphant laugh and simply nodded.
In spite of having studied his face for quite a while it appeared as if Zanzil had only just noticed to whom he was talking. "Gurubashi can't harm Zanzil. What…" His eyes narrowed in concentration again as he took in Zaladin's appearance. They lingered on the faded black mark on the death knight's chin. He squatted down and reached out, and without hesitation he tapped the spot with his index finger, his lips parting as he whispered something inaudible. Zaladin cocked a brow, not fully comprehending what was happening.
"Ohohoho, can it be? Dis be too good to be true!" Zanzil then exclaimed, his eyes popping. "Wait riiiight here," he said eagerly, seemingly forgetting that Zaladin had little choice.
Before the death knight could ask, the former Outcast had half-skipped out of the circle and away from them. Some of the other trolls had fallen into conversation with each other, some were still glaring at Zaladin or eyeing the crying huntress hungrily.
Zanzil's arms were full of oddities when he returned. He was not alone either, and the face of the troll behind him was familiar to Zaladin from the many tablets he had studied out of boredom after being risen. "Bloodlord Mandokir, I presume. How are you alive, I wonder."
"Had a little luck convincin' a priestess to quicken mah return to da flesh. Da same priestess who escaped along with yer elf, unfortunately," Mandokir said with a dark smirk. "Now, Zaladin…" Surprise surged through the gathered Gurubashi. Even Rahsi looked up. She did not understand the language, but Zaladin was sure she knew what had just happened. The death knight himself narrowed his eyes.
"How much do ya remember from before ya died?"
Bet no one expected that. Or perhaps you did. I cannot say.
So this is a load of quite confusing and slightly disturbing information for my poor characters, but as you can probably guess this is just the tip of the iceberg.
I cannot apologise enough for the long wait. This chapter has been lacking everything but a beginning and an ending for months, and I was simply unable to mentally connect those two parts. But now I have, so rejoice!
This sadly does not mean that I will get back into a predictable pattern of posting, but I am definitely finding my way back into the habbit. And I am loving it!
