#but at the start of the story she's 19 and the post garnok arc starts when she's 24 and traveling Jorvik arc when she's 25

[sso-montana]

post garnok montana 👀 what is that like for her 👀 -dinosaurvalley

HELLO HI JOSEPH MY GUY

Ok, so, I'm taking this as only the immediate post garnok time up to like 2 years later bc else it would be so much lmao (so this covers only the post garnok and traveling Jorvik arc since both happens in the span of 3/4 years of one another)

After the squid is properly sealed again so he doesn't fucking destroy the whole island (he's just sealed. He can't be destroyed. In my version Aideen and Garnok are like ying and yang. You can't have one without the other.) the Soul Riders can return to their normal life.

Which is a pretty hard thing to do if you don't know what your normal life looks like. After coming back to Jorvik Montana immediately got involved in magic shit and saving the world and dealing with her parents death which meant she never even had the chance to form some sort of new, every day lifestyle. And she tries, she tries so hard to cope with this normalcy of not spending evening and nights taking out Dark Core machines or dealing with pandoric rifts. So she tries. She helps out at the stables, does work at the forge and helps out with the deliveries, keeps learning new spells and studying magic.

But something is missing. Despite everything she still feels like she has something to do, that there are still things she needs to finish. There's this hollow feeling in her chest that haunts her when she's alone, when it's night and she's laying alone in her bed and no matter what she does it won't leave.

And Justin knows something is wrong. She's thinner than before, she's not dyeing her hair as regularly, she's stoped asking him to spend the night with her, Onyx tells him that she doesn't talk much when the both of them are going on trail rides. Every time he tries to talk to her she changes the subject or says she doesn't want to talk. This goes on for months until one day Justin finally blows up at her and the two of them have the worst fight they've ever had.

Only once Montana breaks down and admits she doesn't know what to do, that she feels lost and without purpose and with no idea of what to do next, of how to fix herself do both of them sit down and talk it out. Justin gets them tea and a box of tissues for Montana and they spend a few hours sitting on her bed, talking about what possibilities there are for her.

In the end they arrive at the conclusion that it would be good for her to travel around Jorvik for a while. Make sure all the portals and stones are sealed, help with any rifts or magic chaos that just naturally occurs on Jorvik. Maybe even learn some new spells, try out how she could perhaps still use her magic. Possibly even find a cure for her corruption.

And it's not like she's leaving for years on end without coming back. She drops by every few months, makes sure she's there for birthdays and things like Christmas or big celebrations. While on the road there are enough people she knows where she can crash at their stables and if that's not an option she has a tent for bad weather and a hammock for warm summer nights. It's actually helping a lot with relearning who she herself as a person is. After 2 to 3 years of this she's figured out how to somewhat navigate from that point forward (aka. Taking over Conrad's Blacksmith once he retires and taking care of magic activities around Moorland, Silverglade and Fort Pinta. Plus still helping out at Moorland Stables and permanently moving back in. Justin and her technically took a break (does that work if you never really were officially together?) and had the whole "if you find someone else take that chance" talk but neither of them did so now they officially are a thing. Only took them abt 8 years to get there

(I change my mind. Justin and her stay an item. They accidentally adopt 3 kids. They don't have biological ones. Mayhaps they got married)