Murkwood oh the wind whistles down

@Archer ^^ mild pp at the end - please let me know if that’s not okay!

Her head was aching, but that was nothing new these days. It wasn’t particularly bad at the moment - a persistent throbbing in the back of her skull that was more of an annoyance than anything else. It was nothing like what it had been a couple of years ago, and she considered herself very fortunate for that fact. It was for that reason that she’d waited until late afternoon to travel, with the sun just sinking beyond the horizon - it was easier on her eyes.

The mountain was familiar - her family was up there, she was confident in it. Their names had been difficult to remember for a while after the fall, but she knew them now. Moonshadow, Nash, Chan. They might be up there, just a day or two away, and Nori was too much of a coward to return just yet. And that didn’t even include Jet, who was an entirely different type of obstacle looming in the distance.

They probably didn’t even want to see her. It had been so much time, they’d all moved on with their lives. She imagined climbing up the side of the mountain just for them to stare at her with cold eyes and turn her away - there wasn’t a place for her there. She didn’t even know why her paws had led her back here.

She’d been so caught up in staring at the mountain through the bare trees that she didn’t realize she wasn’t alone in the forest until the snow crunched behind her, and the ginger woman spun around, ears angling forward and eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Who’s there?” she asked, tone more cautious than aggressive. It wasn’t a bad thing to run into someone, she figured, as long as they weren’t a threat.

(This post was last modified: Apr 13, 2024, 06:38 AM by Nori.)

Archer

He was still roaming aimlessly. His thoughts had turned back to home more and more often since his run-in with his ma; he still couldn't believe she was back, and he felt he should be returning to spend time with her, let her get to know him now that he was grown, and get to know her now that she had so obviously been changed. Home was obviously changed, too, and he wondered just how out of place he would feel when he got back.

But he still couldn't go back without Ally. He just could make himself give up on her - and that's what it felt like. Giving up on her. He knew that wasn't true, and if he kept on like this it meant he would probably never make it back home, but he just couldn't face them. Even though he had, really; he'd run into everyone that mattered while out searching. He didn't think they'd hate him if he came back without his daughter, and his da had said he'd been wrong...

Archer paused when he heard a voice, head rising and ears lifting. He really needed to pay more attention, he might just wander right past Ally if he kept getting lost in his thoughts like this. He took a few more steps forward until he could see another wolf around the trees. "Oh," he said. "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. I didn't mean to startle you."

[size=x-small]Archer is very haggard and thin; it is obvious he is not doing well.

The stranger was a man - dark-furred and a little smaller than she was, and he… wasn’t looking good. She was no stranger to going hungry, but he looked like he hadn’t eaten in a while, like he wasn’t taking care of himself. He hadn’t been paying any attention to where he was going, either, which Nori supposed she could also relate to.

“No harm done,” she said, warm brown eyes studying him curiously. His eyes were a pretty silver color - like moonlight, she mused to herself. A small smile formed on her face. “Didn’t startle me at all.”

There was a sense of wrongness in the air - like something was amiss. It could’ve just been her headache, or the man’s downtrodden appearance, but Nori couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong.

She cleared her throat and tilted her head to the side, hoping to break the ice. “So,” she began nonchalantly, still observing the stranger. “What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?” Though the words were a little flirtatious, her tone was more neutral - genuine. She doubted either of them were in a state to truly be making advances. “You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

He certainly must have, to not know she was there until she’d said something.

(This post was last modified: Apr 15, 2024, 05:11 AM by Nori.)