It was several days later that Msaka reined his saurus into a half-turn and halt, allowing him to pause and survey his homeland for one last time. He'd waited for the caravan to depart Tarna - in great haste, as its master couldn't be sure that the trouble was truly over - and met with it once it was safely away from the city and the uncomfortable questions that might have awaited him there. Given the still-significant potential for danger in the region, it hadn't been all that difficult to talk his way into joining the retinue for the journey back north.

The caravan had finally crested the northern plateau that overlooked the savannah and the jungle beyond, allowing Msaka a breathtaking - and heart-wrenching - panorama of the place that he had called home for his entire life. A lump slowly built in his throat as he took that long, last look at the vista which he knew, deep down, that he would never set eyes on again.

He could have been and perhaps should have been bitter about what had happened, but even that had faded with surprising swiftness in the aftermath of the wizard's death and his virtual banishment from his tribe. Those who mattered to him had, in the end, acted in good faith, despite the painful consequences... and his own perspective of the world beyond his village's borders had shifted so dramatically in the time that he had spent away from it that it was, perhaps, best for all concerned that this had been the final result of his endeavors.

He closed his eyes and whispered a soft, serene farewell that quietly slipped away on the gentle breeze that was flowing down onto the plains, then urged his saurus back into motion and returned to his place in the line. His homeland lay behind him, but a large world lay ahead of him... one which he had only begun to explore. Somewhere, amidst all of its strange lands and often stranger people, there was a new place waiting for him. Somewhere...