Coho Pool I've got a ghost in the hallway grinning

RE: Azra Ally, you are witness to the wind the manipulating snow into a wolf-like figure before it is blown away to nothing.
AW to one or two others

I guess it goes to show, does it not?

THAT WE'VE NO IDEA WHAT WE'VE GOT UNTIL WE LOSE IT

Ally wasn't sure if she would get in trouble for this, but she'd finally left the territory. This time she was sure to go slow enough that she would be able to find her way back, and she wasn't going far. Just enough to gather her thoughts. If everything went well she would be back before anybody realized she was gone. Not even going to stay the night out.

The plan. Just see some sights and go home. Prove she could do this. Be a better pack member, pull her own weight, make her father proud. She could do this. But she needed to get herself together.

Ally heard the faint trickling of water and mindlessly steered her paws toward the sound, stopping when she could see a frozen waterfall, only a thin stream of water still running. It was beautiful, if almost allegorical. She felt like that waterfall, stuck in place and only running on instinct, on necessity. Eating because she must, walking because she could not sit still, but her spirit locked in ice. Her head tilted as she considered it.

Wind tugged at her fur and she turned to watch the snow swirl around her. It poofed up, forming for a heartbeat into a shape not dissimilar to her father, and then vanished. In that blink Ally could swear she felt his eyes on her, felt him look into her soul. "Dad," she croaked, stumbling forward, to the spot where the snow had already settled, as if she could bring the vision back, bring him back, and everything would be alright again.

But she couldn't, and it wouldn't.

For three whole days, Oleander slept. While it helped his body recover, it also put his mind in a suffocating fog. The snow had piled in front of his cozy nook, higher than he had recalled when he first arrived. Sheets of white crumbled from his back and shoulder. Sharp bits of frost had formed on his guard hairs and whiskers. He shook it all off as he emerged into the open, unsurprised as the snow continued to fall. One good stretch and he was off on his usual patrol path.

He navigated past familiar sights until he found the Creek. From there, he let his paws wander at random, simply happy to be home. The wind picked up, tousling his pelt where the fur grew longest. His eyes narrowed as a curious yet unfamiliar scent reached his nose.

The walk to the place where he and Sage had last been together was short. Oleander couldn't decide if he ought to blame his willowy limbs or the mind fog.

"Dad."

The voice sounded small and meek. It definitely belonged to someone he didn't know. At least, not yet. He traversed through the light snowfall, picking his way across the buried underbrush. And, what he saw next, he could not be prepared for. A rogue gust of wind, the scattering swirl of snow flurries. He had not seen the wolf-like shape that she had seen but was taken aback by it even so.

"Whew," he sounded, voice still gravelly with sleep. He stood out in plain sight at the ice's edge, tail lax at his heels before waving it in greeting. "Quite the storm out here. Ya lost?"

         

OLEANDER |

Nobody gets me like you do I'm not the same, not after you

Ally had not expected to run into anyone else out here. She jumped when he spoke, for a moment thinking it had been the Spector, before she saw him. She vaguely recognized his scent from around the territory but did not think they'd met yet. Her own fault, since she'd sequestered herself away for so long. That, and she didn't think he'd been around for the last little while.

Her eyes drifted back towards where the snow had swirled, taunting her with visions of that which she wanted most, before she shook her head. <B>"I'm just taking a walk,"</b> she said, taking a few steps closer to the man so he could hear her over the gusting. <B>"You're from the Backwater, right? Can you... Not tell Eros you saw me out here? I don't know if I'm still grounded or not."</b> Maybe not best to reveal her disobedience, but... She didn't want to worry him.