Dragoncrest Cliffs soul of magnolias

She’s chasing the rabbit with everything she has through the redwood forest. Even if she’s been here a few months, it isn’t as easy as when she’d been in Trigeda. It’ll take time to memorize the forest well enough but for now she does the best she can. She moves in between the trees with decent ease, but she does stumble once and it’s a surprise she doesn’t wipe out and hit the ground. The small rodent manages to get a few more feet ahead, just enough that makes the pursuit a little more difficult. She tries to launch forward to close some of the distance but the advantage is undeniable.

It slips between one set of trees and Ajatar continues after it, but it dives off beneath a number of fallen redwoods. There’s a gap just big enough for the small animal to slip into but it doesn’t stop her. She slams to a halt, nearly crashing into the tree, but she shoves her mouth through and snaps but it’s just out of reach and now amount of shoving her large form through the tiny hole that’ll get her to the other side.

She withdraws and begins to dig at the cold, hard dirt, but that’s when she feels pain shoot up through one of her toes. A yelp in surprise sends her back, forgetting about the rabbit for the time being to see her front leg paw tinted with blood. Her ears fall back against her head as she lifts it, sniffs and searches for the source. She finds it a beat later in the form of a broken toenail—likely when she’d stumbled earlier and hadn’t noticed until added pressure of digging became unavoidable. It isn’t comfortable to put weight on, either, but she winces, sucks it up, and tries to shake off the failure.

308

Having spent roughly a week within the new territory, Rose had begun to familiarize herself with certain landmarks in order to prevent herself from getting lost. There were the raging cliffs she tended to avoid, the lake which made for a decent spot to find herbs, her den, and a small creek she had found tucked away further east of the territory. If she found herself coming across any of them, then she usually knew where she was. It was when she was away from from these key points that she often found herself in a predicament. Her nose offered some insight as to where she was, but since she spent most of her time relying on sight and taste (for identifying herbs), her other senses were slowly being drowned out. 

However there were still some obvious scents the aspiring medic could easily pick up on, and blood was one of them. She wasn’t very far from the fos goufa to begin with, but Rose quickened her pace towards the odor, anxious to learn of it’s source. When she arrived on the scene, the yearling took a moment to evaluate the situation. Whatever the injury was, it wasn’t serious. There wasn’t that much blood to begin with and she assumed if it was critical, the pale female that stood before her would have called for help prior to her arrival. Rose wasn’t sure if a medic was even necessary for something that seemed like a trivial injury, but this was a chance to prove her worth to someone and that was reason enough for the fiery girl to approach the stranger. “Do you need any help” she asks with a raise of her brow, curious to hear if her assistance would be welcomed or rejected.

It surprises her to see the sudden flash of ginger and red, uncertain why Blixen would be rushing to her. They’ve had strained interactions at best and Ajatar does not hide her feelings on certain things and explains them to her as best she can. She has been taught their ways for a reason and she’s impartial to their everyday lives as much as they can. They’ve begun to warm up to her as she settles in but she still remains at a distance, and for good reason. The war coming up could leave a lot up in the air and until she knows her true purpose here in Drageda, she remains just as observant as ever.

Except, she missed the fact it is not Blixen and as the other zeros in through the trees, she notices he slight difference in hue and the bright blue eyes. It’s the girl she had seen when Thuringwethil came home but new enough to realize she is not one of them.

“No,” she says flatly. Her toe is but a minor injury, the toenail broken in half. She can work on it later without the help of an outsider. The white fur around her toes have turned darker red than before but she stands still and waits to see if it is satisfactory enough for the other.

Rose wasn’t entirely sure what reaction she had been expecting but it’s safe to say she wasn’t surprised that her help was unwanted. She’d like to believe the rejection didn’t bother her but the truth was it did. At least she was trying to prove herself useful, I mean the least the pale female could do was give her a chance. “Alrighty then” she let out, turning to look for a way out. Her eyes briefly caught a glimpse of the rabbit hole that was torn away at but it held little interest to the healer and was quickly forgotten. 

As she moved to depart, Rose took one last look at the now bloodied paw and found herself unable to identify what exactly the injury was. “Make sure to rinse it out good, you don’t want to get an infection in winter” she adds as her final words, giving a few moments to hear any reaction before beginning her departure.

Cameo.

Above the two wolves, a dark shape sailed across the sky. There was a weary slump to the bird's stance, and the feathers at the nape of its neck were wind-blow and our of place. Its dark eyes, however, were still sharp and bright as it looked down on the two creatures, one pale and one ruddy.

For a long moment, it observed their interactions, motionless except for the occasional tilt of its head. But after a time, it seemed to have made up its mind about the pair.

The bird mantled its wings in a singularly dismissive gesture and began to preen, now ignoring the wolves down below. Neither of these were what she was looking for.

Her eyes don’t drift from the other wolf as she accepts the answer and turns to leave. Ajatar’s head moves only to watch the other begins her departure, and blinks when turns back and gives her advice anyway. When she begins to make her leave again, she doesn’t say anything, and waits until she’s completely out of sight to move on. Even if she doesn’t engage with the other, she does decide to take the advice (sure she would have eventually come to that conclusion) and makes her way to the lake and wash it off.

When no other words came from the pale female, Rose gave a huff and continued on her way. She turned to do whatever it was she had been working at previously, (which wasn’t anything important) before putting as much distance between herself and the fos goufa as she could. The pale woman seemed coldly distant to the point that Rose felt she might have disturbed her when she was really just trying to help. But oh well, there would hopefully be a chance for her to redeem herself and if that opportunity never came than Rose supposed this brief interaction didn’t really matter anyways. So she cleared her mind of her worries and began her trip back towards her den, tired from exploration and ready to catch a few winks of sleep.