Riddle Heights Hair Trigger

OOC: Open to anyone!

At first there was nothing but blackness. Then distorted consciousness creeping forth, pulling her back from the nothingness she had known. Blearily, she opened her eyes. As soon as the light hit, Chai was met with a throbbing, stabbing pain. It radiated at and around the left side of her head, centered at her temple. She felt as if she had been trampled, or had taken quite the nasty fall.

Gritting her teeth, she hissed in discomfort, wrenching her eyes shut again. Hopeful to block out the pain. Slowly, she gathered her senses. Felt the air around her. The ground was unforgiving and hard. Stony, littered with sparse grasses. Her body felt sore all over. One at a time, she shifted her legs carefully. Nothing felt broken or dislocated. Aside from the splitting headache, she was in one piece.

Cracking her light blue eyes open again, the throbbing was intense, but no worse. Slowly her vision cleared as she gathered her legs up under her. Bewildered, she noticed she had woken up by the base of a mountainside. And not one she recognized. Not any part of her surroundings looked in the least bit familiar. She was lost. Had probably taken a wrong turn in her travels. She could have passed out or pushed herself too hard from not enough to eat, or ingesting some bad meat. Either way, as she got her bearings, she checked to see if she were truly alone.

Walrus prowled the stony earth with piercing eyes scanning every crevice for food. Some plants she recognized as edible, and the expectant mother would tear them from their roots and devour them as though starved. Perhaps she practically was. Roughly six weeks pregnant, the young Archer descendant was pushing her body to its limits by pursuing survival in solitude.

The children within her, however, felt lively and strong. She was halfway through, and would regain her strength swiftly after the birth. Right? Yes. Walrus felt certain, she could do this.

The scent of dry earth and pine gave way to wolf and the woman raised her head from the ground to assess her surroundings. Someone was here, and that meant one thing to her; a means to procure fresh meat. She barked out, hoping to draw attention.

A sudden, deep pang in her gut served as a reminder. Her body craved food. How long had it been since she had last eaten? With a swish of her tail, she turned from scanning the rocky terrain in general, towards more with one as an eye for prey. Chai was alone, on her own out in this unknown world. And she didn't consider herself very good at much. But she did at least, have an edge when it came to hunting.

A call barked out behind her, meant for her alone, of course. Her russet and cream furred body flinched slightly at the sound. She whirled around swiftly. Drawing her frame slightly lower than normal, her body language was defensive, but non aggressive, with splayed back ears and sheathed teeth.

The caller was a female. Black coated with hints of other colors. Bright eyed. And...definitely pregnant, if her nose served her right. "Who are you?" She tried, in her typical soft, reserved voice. Her posture eased, if only slightly. "Can...you tell me where I am?"

The other wolf seemed to mind themself well, Walrus thought as she at last set eyes upon the stranger. Her burning gaze appraised the woman, her rough condition apparent through several aspects of her being while she presented a guarded demeanor. Morganna's daughter could not yet discern if this wolf was of use to her.

Her ears twitched forward to catch the fellow vagabond's queries, marking her novelty to this land. Walrus' steady strides closed to a standstill a few meters out from the other.

"Yer upon the great serpent's back," she answered in her typical drawl, gaze passing over the other's whole frame for the umpteenth time, "n' it don't seem ter be doin' yer any favors. Name's Walrus. Yer's?"

(This post was last modified: May 10, 2022, 01:42 AM by Walrus.)