Secluded Spring the oracle was wrong

for @Galen only.

Magg had lost track of just how many days had passed since she had fallen. Since she had been pushed, by a familiar stranger, a face she knew but could not place. Most of her time now was spent picturing him, making sure that no detail faded. If she ever made it home, her parents would know. They would know and they would make him pay.

She roamed the lakeshore, left hind leg dragging uselessly. It throbbed, spiked, but she didn't have the energy to try and coddle it anymore. Her last meal, scavenged and spoiled and stringy, had been days ago. Infection was in her system, building up. Protection, comfort, rest were all relics of the past.

If she ever made it home, Magg would never be the same.

Galen was traveling in hopeless circles now, a wayward soul lost amongst the trees that seemed...oddly familiar. Alas, that just couldn't be true for the swarthy male given the amount of time he had actively searched for what he had lost, where he had come from only to return empty pawed each time. How many moons had it been since his golden gaze last laid themselves upon the pebbly lakeside that had once been called home? Upon familiar faces. Galen had lost count.

Swarthy limbs maneuvered themselves slowly through the vegetation with the plumpness of a recently hunted rabbit carcass dangling between clamped jaws, the metallic tang of blood still fresh upon the boy's tongue and its scent thick in his nostrils. Albeit, not thick enough to prevent the most predominant and unmistakable scent from filling his sinuses. Magg.

There was no way. Clearly the loneliness of his solitude had just become too much to bear and made his mind conjure up such nonsense yet his dark limbs wasted no time picking up their pace from a brisk walk to a full on sprint in order to follow its trail. Unaware that he had indeed managed to make it part of the way back home.

Magg smelled the hare's blood first. Sharp, like the pain in her stomach, snatching up her attention all at once. Her head lifted and her eyes dilated, eager to locate its source. Visually, because she did not have the strength nor pain tolerance to go searching. The thought of smelling fresh food but not being able to reach it caused her heart to hammer with anxiety. Then she saw Galen, thin but indisputably him, and her shoulders and ears dropped at once.

She was hallucinating. The realization make her stomach not just cramp but drop, the proof beginning to pile up that she wasn't making home. Magg was dying, wasn't she? Tears began to sting her eyes. Sniffling, she looked up again, expecting the specter of her lost friend to have vanished. He was still there, running, closing in fast. Her wolfish brows pinched with bemusement, disbelief still strong.

"Galen... ?"

The sting of twigs snagging onto filthy fur the harder he ran was widely ignored compared to the growing strength of Magg's scent with each stride forward, convinced that any second now her perfume would vanish alongside his last bit of hope in returning home. Shrubbery still blocked his path, but shades of tawny soon became mottled amongst it and the uncertainty of his name spoken so softly barely managed to reach his ears that now stood fully erect upon the top of his head. No, he couldn't be hallucinating this. Her scent, her voice, it was either far too real, or far too cruel.

Finally the distance was closed and the truth was standing right there before him. At least, that was until his legs failed to slow him down in time and sent the boy reeling face first into the dirt with a hefty oof once a low laying root tripped him up. All the while the rabbit formerly lodged between his teeth was sent flying forward as well, landing smack dab in front of the starved Magg's paws like a gift.

"M-Magg.." Galen heaved himself up, eyes wide with bewilderment at what he was seeing. This was definitely the Magg he remembered, but something..something was wrong. Why did she not move? Swarthy brows furrowed themselves intensely as his golden gaze looked her over. Unhappy with the condition his childhood best friend was currently in. "Magg.." He spoke her name once more, this time softer in tone as his ears splayed back and his head hung low in what could only be attributed to guilt. Had he inadvertently caused this?

She realized he was real when he tripped. Her ears shot up and her eyes widened with surprise and concern both. The rabbit may well have not existed at all for the moment. Galen spoke her name and she could see the detail in his eyes and it sunk in steadily. Many emotions assailed her at once, wrestling for dominance. Perhaps she would have unleashed them all upon him at once, were she not so physically battered and exhausted.

As it were, Magg broke down into tears. Her haunches hit the snow, broken leg sticking out at an awkward angle from her body and protesting against the position with surges of pain. They made her sob harder.

"G-... G-..." she tried to get his name out again, but couldn't. She wanted shelter, she wanted warmth, she wanted safety. Then she could process his showing up now, of all times. Both the providence of it as well as the bitter-tasting irony.

To watch Magg break down into the most vulnerable state Galen had ever witnessed upon setting eyes on him was utterly gut wrenching and a sight he wished to eradicate the moment it began, the wales of her pain in more than one sense of the word ringing loudly in his ears. Immediately whatever minute pain he felt to the underneath of his jaw from the clumsy topple moments ago was shoved aside, his lean frame from a lack of steady meals quickly shifting to allow Galen the opportunity to wrap himself around her in a wolfish embrace. Head tucked against the point where her shoulder blades met. He cared not for the gnashing of teeth he expected and honestly knew he deserved, to come his way and dig into his flesh. Nor the harsh words he equally knew was bound to come tear him a new one.

"Sh..I'm here..I'm here." Galen tried his best to soothe the girl's pain while nuzzling the edge of his muzzle into the equally dirty fur that lined her scruff, inhaling the familiarity of her scent once more as he did so as if to assure himself he wasn't hallucinating and this was actually Magg he was holding. Not some super fuzzy bear that was going to swipe a paw at him in the blink of an eye. "I'm here.." His words were repeated once more, this time more so to assure herself than him. He wanted to make the pain go away, but how? He never learned the art of healing like his mother and her leg looked pretty banged up. Hell he never even learned the basics of tending to a wound let alone something completely broken like this.

Magg couldn't help but snuggle deeply into Galen's embrace, the first time she'd experienced another warm body since the accident (assassination attempt?). It almost felt like being home again, and as she closed her brown eyes tightly and tried to block out everything but her best friend, she tried to lean into it. Reality couldn't be pushed away the same way it could when she was a pup, though.

'I'm here,' he assured her over and over, and as the moments passed, her breathing steadied and her tears slowed. She believed him, knew he would do everything he could to get her through this and get them both back home, but... how long would it be then, that he'd stay? Why did he keep wandering away at all?

She didn't have the energy to get into it now, even if she had wanted to.

"... there's no way I can make it up the mountain like this. I don't... I don't know what to do," another uncharacteristic whine, her vulnerability undeniable. At the least, she would need to rely on Galen for food, or else literally starve. Today they had the kill he'd stumbled across her with, but how long until they could find safety? Especially when...

"We can't go south. He's, he could be waiting for me."

(This post was last modified: Dec 28, 2023, 01:42 AM by Magg.)

Galen could feel the tawny girl lean into and embrace the warmth his larger frame offered, his chin tucking itself further into her scruff as if by doing so he could bring her battered and worn body the cure it needed. The dark teen would give Magg his all if that meant making all of this go away, making things right again. Gradually her body began to relax, her sides heaving at a more steady pace once her breathing calmed and with it the frequency of the tears rolling down her cheeks slowed as well. Only then did Galen dare lift his head to partially loosen his hold on her. Enough to allow them to look eye to eye, but still tight enough to ensure the tawny girl he wasn't going anywhere this time. He hadn't meant to this time, but the smoke had something else to say about that.

Ebony ears flicked forward to signal his undivided attention to the words she spoke, the hesitation and lack of confidence that was unbecoming of his friend enough to make his own stomach want to drop. Until she went on and what Magg said was more than enough to send his stomach dropping faster than a roller coaster. "He? He..he who?" Confusion was evident on young facial features as brows knitted themselves together, Galen's golden gaze searching Magg's own expression for any further clues on just what she had meant by he. Was there someone else that had been out here with her? If so why weren't they here helping her?

Unless... Had it been a Backwater wolf seeking retribution?

Galen could feel the beginnings of a growl rumble in the depths of his chest, but he knew he had to remain calm. For her sake.

"Where do we go then?" Clearly home was out of the question for the time being, but where could he take her and they be safe?

'He who?' Magg's features darkened softly, knowing the weight of what she had yet revealed to her friend. What if it meant more than this one incident, just the beginning of worse things to come?

'Where do we go then?' Her mind searched for options, and there was one name that kept swimming to the surface. Paradise Falls. It wasn't close, but it was manageable, and there was family amongst their ranks.

"Th-there's a pack, where Uncle Chan went. I think, I can get us there. They could send word to my parents, and warn them- I don't want them going down the mountain to the west. This wolf, he shoved me off the fucking waterfall."

Anger seeped into her words then. Deep down, Magg wanted to retaliate. To hunt the stranger down with Galen's help and make him hurt. Of course, that wasn't realistic recourse.

His posed question was met with pure silence and the gradual darkening of Magg's features, yet no name was ever given breath which only served to agitate the swarthy boy's building anger and own suspicions in regards to who had the audacity to hurt his best friend of all people. His tail starting to rise and give a lash behind his back before letting it fall limp once his emotions were reigned back in for the time being.

Instead the girl went on to answer his second asked question, speaking upon a pack that harbored family and was a more manageable feat than their trek back to the Cove. Galen gave a firm nod of his head in agreement that the mission now was to reach this safe haven and get word back home that a threat was prominent. "Let's get going then." His larger frame saddled up along Magg's side to be offered as a crutch, hoping to ease the pain to some degree from the damaged leg by removing some of the weight she needed to put on it. It was all Galen could offer to do in this situation.

"Magg." Galen's golden gaze fixated themselves on the path ahead for a moment before slowly shifting them to lock fiercely on her muddy brown ones, a fiery inferno blazing within their depths. "I promise I will find who did this to you and make them pay." Such venom seeped off every word he spoke, his tone stone cold and laced with the confidence he would make sure this oath to her would be fulfilled. Nobody got to hurt his best friend and get away with it.

Nobody.