Neverwinter Forest bandaids for your stupid fragile bodies

backdated a little bit

She is lucky to be in one piece. Seeing her wolves return from the forest, bruised and battered, had put things into perspective easily. If she’s gone into the line of battle, she’d be torn apart just as much as they have. A part of her feels like she should have. She’s returning with them to the forest, where the rest of their wolves have gone into hiding. She and Artaax come away relatively unscathed causes her to shrink back into the group, aimlessly wandering. She’s even avoided Étoille, as much as she’d enjoyed his embrace and reuniting.

The others begin to break off to their respective families late in the night, tired and unable to really go any further. She looks through the crowd for @Blixen, expecting her to have rushed to Thuringwethil or her brother first and so she hangs back, out of the way.

she does not linger by the redhawks' sides once the opportunity to reunite with her kin is present. she should have left the moment mother did and gone back to the forest -- she feels weak and guilty and uncertain, even if they all wear triumph like a crown. after all their victory was all but a given in blixen's mind. it is the injuries she is worried about, the potential losses. 

the gona looks for nomi but does not run to her yet, mostly relieved to see her dark shape in the crowd. none of theirs seems to have been lost as far as she can see -- and then she spies furi, slightly set apart, and nearly falls over herself scrambling to get to her. 

in typical blix fashion, she throws herself into furi's side with a breathless "hi."

Furi looks over at Eske and Étoille, considering a moment to move closer to them. She feels weird and out of place as they come together and the brute of a male has been gone for a long time. Worried about what he may or may not have seen—been part of—crosses her mind and she begins to move in that direction. It will be nice to spend time with him again, even if they’ve both changed. She’s bigger and tougher and maybe that will make him proud, too.

However, before she gets more than a few steps, a fiery blur crosses the corner of her vision and she turns to see Blixen just before she collides. If she had more energy or balance to offer, tired and worn in different ways, it may have turned out different but the moment a little effort is turned into her, she stumbles back and loses her footing. Air gushes from her lungs in surprise and she squirms, trying to right herself and ride the burn of embarrassment. ”Hey,” she says through picking herself up again.

it's only after they've collided that blixen thinks to be worried that furi might be injured. sheepishly she collects herself off the ground and noses against her -- friend? -- urgently, scanning to make sure that she is, in fact, unharmed. when she's satisfied, she sighs a little and presses her nose against furi's in a quick kiss. "you're okay," the gona says, half relief and half to get verbal reassurance. then she grins widely. "did you think about me?"

“Yeah,” she answers, even if it isn’t really a question. She’s 0kay. Sort of. She didn’t see a single fight and yet something doesn’t sit right in her chest. The anxiety has long since made itself home just thinking about what could have happened and what had happened. Furi is glad she is not hurt, nor Artaax, and definitely not Blixen, but so many of the others are and she doesn’t hold a single scratch. It isn’t fair they had taken the brunt of the war when she’d come along, ready to help. Whatever relief she feels that she is okay is twisted bitterly that she does not enjoy it at all.
 
However, it does surprise her to hear the question. Her ears twitch upon her head, uncertain whether to stay erect or slick back. She’d thought of her, yeah. She’d talked to Artaax a little, but now all she wants to do is go home and as much as she want to see Blixen, and spend time with her, it is not the first thing she wants to try and sort out. Furi clears her throat and nods her head, but does not speak yet. Instead, hoping to avoid it all together, she leans into the fiery girl and closes her eyes. “I’m tired.”

she doesn't know that furi is feeling close to how she feels, sidelined and guilty, but it probably would have been nice to talk about it with someone who got it.

oh well.

"me too," she agrees, nosing gently against her face, "i can't wait to get home... mother didn't even stay with us." the gona makes a face, somewhere between a little sad and frustrated, and sighs. "she explained why but i don't really get it. something about being too hot?" truthfully she hadn't been paying much attention, in the moment she'd felt a little heady and frustrated by the circumstances -- protecting mother had been the whole point! but she'd not been allowed to come back to drageda yet either. frowning (pouting) a little, she turns more into furi's neck, as if hiding herself from the rest of the world.

It is a surprise to hear Wildfire had not stayed. Blixen’s explanation causes her brows to knit together but the fiery girl has buried into her fur, her confusion lost to no one in particular.  “That’s weird,” she says because she has nothing else to offer. What’s too hot in the middle of winter? “I’m sorry,” she adds, quietly, leaning into the embrace even more and wrapping her neck around her as much as she can. Furi takes a long breath and holds it, feeling the weight of the world holds her eyes shut.

furi doesn't offer any particular illumination, but blixen wasn't looking for any, anyway. it's nice enough to have the comfort of their shared heat. "it's okay," she says, even though it's really not. she's trying to be better about using furi as a complaints sound-board -- or at least that's what she's decided in the moment, what nomi said floating to the forefront of her mind as the last of her adrenaline ebbs away. 

the ginger pulls back just enough to offer furi a small, slightly nervous smile. "ready to go back home?" she asks, knowing the answer already -- even though going home also means having to adjust back to normalcy and whatever that all entails.

She lingers for a moment, eyes closed and keeping Blixen close. Eventually, she pulls back, and she licks her lips a little before she finally replies. “Yes,” she says. So much, yes. It’s impossible to think about anything else. When there’s a little space between them, she looks to the other wolves as they join together, reuniting with one another. She bumps into Blixen a little, encouraging her forward to greet her family too.