Paradise Falls Lost & Found

OOC: Indigo's trying to find her way home after wandering off, for @Hazelnut & @Ryder but ofc other pack members helping to look are welcome as well.

Wandering off to get lost in the woods had not been Indigo's plan. It was a butterfly that caught the girl's attention. She sniffed the little black and orange bug curiously and it crawled from the flower onto her nose for a brief moment before flitting away. It seemed to her an obvious invitation to play. She bounded after the butterfly as it floated from flower to flower, wholly unnoticing her surroundings growing unfamiliar.

She wasn't quite sure just how far she had gone from her den. When the butterfly finally gave up their little game and flew up into the sky, Indigo paused and sat down to breathe. Only then did she realize that she didn't know where she was. The sky was darkening overhead and she looked around, confused.

Indigo tried to trace her steps back to the den, following faint hints of her own scent, but everything became muddled when you were sniffing your own paws.

When that failed, she sat down and let out a high-pitched howl, calling for her mom and dad. Her voice was still young but she put as much force behind it at possible. Hopefully she wasn't so far that no one would hear her.

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2024, 07:24 PM by Eros.)

As a reminder for myself and others, Indigo has been missing since 8/15. I can definitely change this if needed, but wanted ya to have a response before too long. <3

Ryder had been searched relentlessly, but things were starting to feel hopeless. Just like that, he'd lost his daughter. Literally the most important thing he could have been tasked with and he'd failed horrifically. It was getting difficult not to fall apart into total apathy, to just give up and waste away in solitude somewhere discreet. Indigo had come back from death once before, though. What if one more day was all it took to find her? What if she was still out there needing her dad?

He forced himself to rouse from a fitful few hours of sleep and head out once more, exhausted limbs carrying him swiftly over the ground while his nose worked the air. He'd gotten nearly to the edge of the territory when he heard her, all at once bringing life back to his being.

"Indigo!" he barked out, taking off in the direction the pup's voice had come from. Grey eyes searched ahead frantically while dirty paws ate up the ground.

"Indi! I'm here! Where are you?!"

Indigo's paws felt like lead, dragging in the dirt as she walked trying to find her home. Days and nights of circling around trying to find a familiar path back to her family had drained her to exhaustion. The girl's bouncy personality went quiet as she wandered. She'd barked herself hoarse that first night alone.

Indi had sat down to rest for a moment in her endless search and she stood now to raise her voice to the sky once more. She just wanted to be home now. She wanted to be home with her mother and father and she regretted ever wandering off. If only she had paid attention.

"Dad!" Her voice was a strained squeak as she tried to answer his call. "I'm here!" She took a few steps forward before stopping and laying down once more, tail wagging weakly at the thought of returning home.

He could hear her voice again, but it was scratchy and worn, a distortion of his child. That was difficult enough, and still nothing compared to seeing her. It both made his heart soar and tore it apart to set eyes on her again and see her, alive but collapsed, virtually run into the ground from the harrowing experience of surviving alone at four months old. Ryder was at her side in a heartbeat, dry nose snuffling all over Indi's smaller frame to check for harm.

He wanted to say something, to ask questions, but right then his throat felt constricted and he couldn't get anything out at all. His daughter was alive, he hadn't lost her after all. Faintly he thought of @Hazelnut, but selfishly he didn't fight through the tightness behind his tongue to howl out and let her know. Not right this instant. His focus was wholly on just being thankful that Indigo was home.

Finally reunited with her father, the little girl let out a heavy sigh. She wouldn't be cold and hungry any longer. She leaned into his nuzzling and let herself be checked over with little fuss. She was just happy she wasn't lost anymore. Her tail wagged along the ground.

"I'm sorry, I wandered off," she whined, ears pinned to her head. "I shoulda stayed put. I'm sorry." Indigo was overall unhurt, save for her raw paw pads, which stiffened her legs when she walked. She was only weakened by her time spent wandering confused through the woods.

Indi clung to Ryder's side as soon as she found the energy to stand again. "Where's mom," she asked with a tilt of her head.

Wandered off... ? Ryder of course disapproved. What if he was too harsh in correcting her, though, and that pushed her away just as easily as ignorance and naivety? He gritted his fangs and looked away, unable to bring himself to say anything on the matter. Not in this moment, anyways. Maybe her mother would know better how to handle the situation, or even @Finley.

He couldn't avoid speaking forever, though. Indi asked after Hazey and Ryder had to clear his throat, but was able to give a gruff answer.

"Resting, she's run herself ragged looking for you, we all have."

He would move then, to lead the way back to Hazelnut at the heart of their home. Atara or Finley was bound to come across them sooner rather than later, and frankly the rest of the pack could find out when they found out. Even if he wasn't making the best of it, he was still savoring the return of his daughter's company and didn't need the whole world intruding all at once because of a howl.

"Where were you?" he turned the question back on Indigo with an almost conversational inflection.

"I'm sorry," she pinned her ears back and dipped her head in apology.

"Well, I know I wasn't supposed to go off without an adult..." Indigo began guiltily, "but there was this really pretty butterfly that landed in the flowers. I just wanted to play with it. It landed on my nose and then flew off and I thought it'd be okay if I followed it a little. I didn't mean to go so far, really." She looked at him earnestly, eyes shining.

"I tried to follow my way back but nothing looked familiar, so then I was even more lost. I grabbed a squirrel at one point but it was hard to find food out there. That I can catch, anyway. I kept howling until you heard me." At one point Indigo had spent hours perched above a crick, trying to grab the little flashes under the water, but all she'd caught were a few water-striders. And gotten her paw pinched by an ornery crayfish. Her toe still stung from the thing's claws clinging to it.

"But I'm okay! I'm okay and you found me," Indigo wasn't sure if she was re-assuring Ryder or herself. "Now we can all be together again."