"Lette. Lette...please come out." Was he almost begging? She kept her eyes thin, not wanting a single glimmer to give her away in the blackness. Could he just leave her be for a second? She couldn't take everyone breathing down her neck, expecting an answer when she couldn't think straight. Maybe, if he had given her a second she would think he really was checking on her, wanted to actually know she was okay, that he cared. He only wanted his answer with the rest. Arlette knew what her answer was, but she also knew it wasn't the right one. She had to get out of here, but she had not figured out how. "I'm fine, just need a sec," she replied. How hard she tried to edge a warning in her tone, but was sure it betrayed her again with the usual formula of lightness laced with a hint of anxiety.
Please go away, if you care you'll go away and let me breathe. The words kept echoing as if they might break through his thick head, if he might actually edge away from the mouth of the cave. This was what bothered her most about this pack, everything had to be fucking perfect and she was not conforming to any of their standards...not any more.
"Lette," there was the hint of a growl when he called again, erasing all the warmth she had known him for. Lettie knew he was giving her one last warning, one last chance to choose. What choice was there? Pretending to be happy would not actually make her.
Forcing her eyes open she was glad to be greeted by faint light of the warm sun in the east. Oh, what time was it? Groggy, she blinked, and tested her sleepy limbs that would not quite function. They had their own bite of numbness, and she sighed because she disliked when this happened. A couple minutes, she titled her head back. Even when she let her sight awake it was still hard to guess if it was morning from the knotted branches and limbs that entwined so tightly above and around her. It was like they were trying to block out the blue sky, and everything else. While she had not intended to sleep here, her rest had turned into a little more. The wolf gained her surroundings, seeing the familiar remains of her dinner, and the scattered piece of mountain she would just have to find that pass. It had to have scents, this she was pretty sure and for no good reason.
Shifting her pale limbs, she jiggled them one at a time to get the blood flowing and set on a fast walk. She thought she was pretty ready for a hike, catching other loners trails here and there. Oh she thought wrong! It did not take long for things to start to look the same, the mountain to get obscured, and her tail to snag in a vicious, prickly bush. The more she tried to pull it out, the more burs seem to knot in the long white wisps of her hair. It was only in desperation she howled, a terrible cry for help.
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