It was sort of like a dream. That he went out yesterday intent on exploring and during the middle of a sudden blizzard, he had walked into the backside of Victoria. They took shelter under the sad branches of a bush and there they had stayed until the storm had passed.
And now? Cottongrass was running away, bee-lining from the fields where he found Victoria to the hills where he and Reyes usually holed up. But maybe the term running away was an exaggeration. After all there was a lot of freshly fallen snow on the ground, Cottongrass had short legs, and the hills were something like a death trap for him. So he shuffled along the best he could, his running away purely metaphorical.
But each step he took had him going further and further away from Victoria. Away from the wolf he spent an entire month looking for. He didn't know what he'd been expecting from her in the first place, when he took it upon himself to find her. That they would explore the world? Go on misadventures for the rest of their lives? She had come to find a pack, and when Grizzly Hollow wouldn't have her, she found another pack to join. It wasn't supposed to be hurtful. But Cottongrass couldn't shake the compulsion to leave. He didn't want to join a pack. And that was supposed to be that.
Except the quiet, petulant part of his brain wouldn't stop whispering that maybe they weren't friends. That maybe they never were and it meant he had to sever ties and disappear. So far he was doing a pretty bad job of ignoring that part of himself. He focused on shuffling forward through all the snow, head down and nose twitching as he went. Because he was intent on finding Reyes, even if it was only an excuse. If he found Reyes he could figure something out later. He could push down whatever it was building inside of himself if he had a distraction.
That's what he kept on telling himself, picking up his pace as he went. All he had to do was find Reyes, ignore whatever was brewing for just a little longer then he'd be fine. And just as he weaved between the trees, heading down one of the many slopes that made up the area, he tripped. He tripped over his own big, dumb, clumsy paws and gravity did the rest as he landed awkwardly on his shoulder and chest and finally—flank. There he stayed, lying on his side with his legs curled towards him in the middle of a clearing. He found that he couldn't bring himself to move even if he was perfectly okay. Maybe he could find Reyes after he just... laid there for a little bit. It sounded like an idea.