It wasn't like he had meant to fall asleep. The last memory that floated in his brain was of a golden cat saying something kind to him, then there was only darkness. Something must have happened between those two points, he was sure of it, but when he finally woke his mind was empty.

A void had overtaken that spot of his long-term memory and eaten away at him. Over the course of many cycles his body had matured within the confines of a chrysalis; but he had broken out of it in no time at all - a few hours ago, in fact - to find himself befuddled by the absence of so many things. That cat's face remained fixed in his memory; there was no name to go with it, though. He could recall her mouth moving and some pieces of conversation but each time he replayed what he thought was the correct order of events, different segments would go silent. He remembered feeling warm. He remembered holding communion with this person, but at the same time Hyndmark knew he could not have spoken to her - he had no voice. It was an impossibility. Was he misremembering?

Maybe. Probably. It was the only logical conclusion, and left him proverbially scratching his head. He wanted answers. Then again, as he paced among what he recognized as Polaris' heart, the hound did not know what questions would lead him down the right avenue to those answers he sought. The only breadcrumb he could focus on was the cat's face: he knew that face, it had to have been a real face at some point. Maybe, if he did his best to retrace his steps, he could find that person and discover what happened?

It was unfortunate for Hyndmark, of course, that he was thinking of one long-dead Makyna. The lioness was no longer here to grant those answers, or to mother him in any regard. He had missed out on the opportunity of forming that connection - but that wasn't something he was aware of. It might take the rest of his unnatural life, but he would track down the answers that he sought.

He deliberated over where to go first, wasting those hours post-emergence (post-re-emergence? Post-awakening?) pacing through the center of the cavernous room. There were some things about Polaris he did not recognize, but he chalked that up to being young the last time he had been awake. Young, inexperienced, not exactly observant. Were those clusters of glowing mushrooms so prolific, back then? Were the golems more active? The spire - had it grown in size?

No, he did not know where to go next. Mapping Polaris seemed like the best thing to focus on, at least for now, so he kept himself occupied by following various trails - only to double-back and retrace his steps in the opposite direction, again and again.