It felt like failure, moving, giving up everything she had ever worked on, leaving behind all the things she'd so painstakingly gathered and protected over her lifetime. The part that hurt the worst was leaving behind Shreyas hibernation den, empty as it may have still been; as if admitting the truest Mother she'd ever been graced with had just... vanished. It was so unlike her, and it hurt so badly to believe she was gone like so many others had left Raisa behind. Had something happened, and Raisa wasn't there to help? Had she wandered off and gotten lost?
Did she decide she didn't need the fake daughter clinging to ideas of grandeur?

But for the future of her people, of the members that had made up her home, new and hold, she had to stop stagnating. Sure, maybe they could've reformed, recruited, tried to keep Seiiki alive... but why? Why bother? Raisa was tired of people leaving. Tired of being left behind to pick up the pieces of her own shattered heart, tired of looking around for her friends or family and seeing few. Serafina had made it this far, a loyal presence at her sisters side. Was she upset the mantle and crown Raisa had forged had just been tossed into the sea and not passed on to someone else? Did she see it as an extension of Rajani, the pack Raisa finally let die?
She'd changed everything, but it'd always felt like Sem'ya to her.
The same empty, quiet place she remembered.

It was time for something new.

Barbosa didn't choose to follow, and Raisa's heart ached for it; the woman had taught her so much, and she'd been a calming, wise force in Seiiki when Raisa needed her. Some part of her hoped that in time, she'd change her mind, and follow the directions that would lead her back to them. If not, then Raisa simply wished the best for her.
This was the part that hurt worse about disbanding, but that hollow ache was gentled by the fact that everyone else followed.
Cobalt, Carnifex and his new ward(?), Serafina, they all made the trek back north with her....

To the borders of Northfall. Raisa approached, full of shame and head hanging, but still glad the rest of them were staying together. It was her one tiny blessing now, and she clung to it.
She cast her gaze around to make sure everyone was still keeping up as the smell of the borders preceded them.

Welcome to our new home, she sighed, but smiled, as she gestured to the peak, where somewhere soon they would meet the scent markers of the northerners and those behind them.

guide. honored. agrippa wore a cowl of pure white harehide around her shoulders as the keen springtime of her eyes watched the tired travellers approach. only a dusting of snow told where she had been, falling also from two bobbing branches as she wove foxlike down from the higher climes of northfall and into the foothills.
their leader was a striking brindled woman with a pair of eyes illustrating sunset over a dark blue sea. at her side was an equally tall she-wolf who shared the curled fur and dark stripes. agrippina saw at once their formidable relation, separating them by the jadeite hue of the second's gaze. with these two were others; a small wolf with long unkempt fur and sea-green eyes and another which the roman could not quite glimpse behind the imposing bulk of a gigantic cat.
fear and intrigue warred within her. instinct said to snarl, to flee, but the calm of the others with the feline in their midst suggested that this would be a less than logical action. welcome to northfall, she greeted, recovering in the next moment. i am agrippina, Guide to the mountain. if you will come with me, i will take you to our underground forest where you may be more sheltered.
there they could meet with wardruna, she thought, and be out of the snow, however light.

Less than logical maybe, but still a smart move when seeing a massive cat.

As gentle as Carnifex seemed, he still stared at the small wolf, pale blue eyes pinpricks in the bright light that looked less than friendly. It's just his resting face, with the slight concern that's been etched into his features ever since his sovereign said they would be moving.

But still, he towered over the wolves like a guardian, he would go where Raisa goes.

....maybe these people have gods...