Empress Riffle Tear your heart out yourself

24-48 hours after say goodbye as we dance with the devil tonight

what if it's you and not the world?

Treyah Tainn

Lacey had barely made it home, she had allowed herself a day, one day to relax, to take a load off and just enjoy the company of her packmates and then he was gone. It was with a growing dread that she followed the fading trail, through the wildwood to the riffle when the coppery tang of blood filled her nose. Red on white and stark black strokes of dragged paws leaving muddy furrows in the shallow snow. Wrong. Wrong, it was all so wrong. He was here, and then he wasn't and a clawing feeling worked its way from her chest into her throat, her vision blurring around the edges. She tried to call, to anyone, a strangled sound barely escaping her lips before her legs folded beneath her.

No, no, no, no. Not another one, not again.

(Pretend this didn't happen)

(This post was last modified: Dec 12, 2017, 10:13 AM by Celandine.)

Have you seen my OOC preferences?

The Draw was in the throws of muted celebration at Lacey's return. Treyah found her safe, and sound, and brought her back. Maybe that's why they had all let down their guards. Or maybe it was because nothing bad could happen to the Tainn children. They were strong, and invincible. At least in Lana's still-young mind.

So it was with increased confusion that she was caught by her eldest sibling's gutteral scream. Her body was forced into action, tearing towards the sound without another thought. When her pale eyes finally fell upon the crumpled form of her sister, she didn't have time to process what had caused it, she just had to fix it.

Digging her nose straight into the plush fur of Treyah's shoulders, Lana managed a small. "What happened, what's wrong?"

'Cause nobody can save me

Treyah Tainn

The thunderous approach of paws had the yearling leader sinking in on herself. She was vulnerable and flinched away from Lana's touch, teeth coming to bare defensively while her heightened primitive senses of fight or flight were still fully engaged. Her logical mind was telling her there was no danger here, and she knew that she needed to breathe but still her breath came in short sharp gasps, her body dragging away from her sister with frantic flailing of her limbs. "Go home." She managed to spit out sharper than she intended, trying to convey an apology with her wide-eyed stare (but it probably just ended up looking intimidating with the whites of her eyes on display). "It's not safe here."

Lana jumped back as soon as Treyah's teeth flashed towards her. Instinctively, the girl's ears cemented themselves against the hard bone of her skull, and her tail curled down, and then up to rest against her underside. She felt each word as it was spat from her sister's maw, as though every syllable was delivered with a physical blow. Making herself as small as possible, the youth felt her limbs pushing her back, pulling away from Trey as quickly as possible. She felt the sickly sound of a whine escape her throat, as confusion and fear danced over her features.

It was only then that the familiar scent of iron on the air entered her nose. Bright eyes flashed to the scene. Blood. There was blood, and Suka. She could smell him, but she couldn't see him. Where was he? Another whine slashed through the air between herself and her eldest sibling.

And even though it all went wrong

Treyah Tainn

As her sister recoiled she gained a little of herself back. Treyah looked away, across the blood stained clearing knowing that she would achieve nothing in this state. With a deep inhale lost to the shaking of her own frame she tried again, the gesture more a gasp than inhale as she allowed her eyes to drift closed. She wasn't helping anyone like this and she had to pull herself together!

When the world stopped spinning and heaving under her paws she managed to open her eyes again, "I'm sorry Lana." And she really was, as something stung at the backs of her eyes and the darkness rushed through her veins again. Why did this keep happening to her? Was it something about her that bought this down on them? Wasn't she enough? Treyah hadn't remembered things being this catastrophic in the bend. She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat as she rose on trembling limbs to get a better look at the scene. There had to be a trail around here somewhere.

Lana remained as small as possible, but stopped crawling backwards as soon as she found herself out of Treyah's striking distance. Just in case. The inky girl didn't think that her sister had any intentions of hurting her, but instinct told her to be safe.

When Treyah's voice came again, this time filled with less malice, the dark girl allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. Dipping her muzzle as a way of saying 'It's alright.', Lana let her gaze follow her sister's towards the scene. She made no motion to move from her spot, but did lift her front half up off the ground. "He couldn't have gone far." the words were said more as a comfort to herself than to Trey.

i wear my heart for all to see

Treyah Tainn

Suka might not have gone far, she wasn't sure that he could having lost so much blood but all she could smell was blood, and water, mud and snow. There was no obvious trail and while she thought the water was too shallow to sweep someone away, choked as it was with ice, she couldn't be totally sure because if his scent wasn't on either of the banks, then where could he have gone. She would hope that if he were headed anywhere it would be upstream, back towards the draw. She motioned with a tip of her head, "C'mon, we should check upstream, just in case..." But a niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach was telling her not to get her hopes up.

Lana felt so helpless as she sat there, waiting for Treyah to solve the problem. It wasn't fair that everything had to fall on her sister's shoulders, but what was the inky girl supposed to do? She didn't know how much blood was too much to lose, or how far one would actually be able to travel after losing said amount. She didn't know which way Suka might have gone, or why he wouldn't have come home after getting hurt. She couldn't do anything.

When Treyah's voice caught her eardrums, it was all she could do to nod, and look hopeful. They would find him. They had to.

i wear my heart for all to see

Treyah Tainn

They scanned the riffle in both directions, calling out to Suka with no responding calls or clues left to go on. She let loose a heavy sigh, the anxiety stabbing at her heart in regular intervals, her mind playing on repeat what if, what if, what if. She wasn't achieving anything standing here and she had Lana to think of too, the last thing she needed was the girl catching her death while looking for a wolf that may or may not be dead or washed downstream who knew how far?

"C'mon Lana, we've gotta get back and let the others know. The more eyes on the lookout, the better." It felt like defeat to turn around and go home now, but she would be back. She hadn't given up on any of the others, she wasn't about to give up on him either.