Phoenix Maplewood be careful waking up the giants

backdated a little to the evening after she left

she padded back into the maplewood when the sun was just beginning to dip beneath the horizon, the calls of nightbirds tinging the night air with music. clutched in her jaw were a marmot and a hare, the latter of which freshly caught with a great deal of protest from the wounds that marred her chest and shoulder, with additional outcry from the shallow, yet annoying, gash over her right eye. 

she moved through the wood, searching for the pair, not entirely sure if she'd rather encounter @Aditya alone, or with @Easy. surely it would be better to explain to him exactly what she'd done first, and yet she did not know what she'd say to him. she did not know how to explain that all her doubts faded in the face of losing him, the possibility of which scared her more than anything she'd encountered. when she neared the place they'd settled, she let out a low chuff, approaching carefully now as her mind buzzed for an explanation that she could not quite put together.

he had become quite cross in dawn's absence, though he was careful not to let the emotion flit across his face around easy. the girl was annoyed enough; he knew she was more than done with having to deal with all of this. it couldn't be easy for her, after all--he snorted aloud at his own joke, the kind of wordplay his friend cody would have used, far away in the sequoias and in time.

what was wrong with her? aditya had forgotten the experiences of his own youth in his anger. after all, he had been filled with boundless wanderlust, unable to be tethered to any place or creature. but here was this princess, she had it all. . .and she still wasn't satisfied?

his tail lashed irritably as he caught wind of her scent once more, and his eyes were colder than ice as she came into his field of vision. they softened, however, as he took in the barely-healed mess of her chest and shoulder, and took a couple steps forward, brow furrowed in worry.

"what the hell?" adi exclaimed, looking at her with an incredibly perplexing mix of confusion and irritation. his gaze flitted back and forth between the two emotions, before finally settling on the former. . .and not without a little sadness, as well. here he was, thinking these dour, rude thoughts, and she was hurt. "what happened, dawn?"

he brought his muzzle forward to sniff gingerly at her wounds. a wolf he did not know, and. . . samaantine. the name, woven together with the scent he'd picked up by silvertip, assailed his senses. his lips lifted in a small snarl. had dawn gotten into it with the black-pelted temptress he'd met that once? and god, was that the faintest note of engel, tangled with the messeda girl? what the hell, dawn?

adi gestured gently to the prey in her mouth, and, with a murmured thank you, bade her to drop the small corpses on the ground. "sit, and let me have a look at those cuts." watching pema had taught him the faintest bit about healing; he wanted to see whether he could use the information gleaned in action.