all for one

Transit thread #1 (because having Szech magically appear at STM bothers me). Anyone can intercept! Prefer to spree her transit threads but feel free to hop in. Prior to the raid on STM, obviously. She's on her way there.

The mountains were forbidding, and she was not equipped to deal with them. The stout girl had felt a wave of unease settle about her as soon as she started, thus she turned tail and escaped back in to the forest - and then, finding her route to the south, around the mountain's base. Her face still hung with ragged flesh and dried blood; it still stung as if ablaze, as infection began to settle in. But she was alive, and would be for a little while longer. As her heading shifted in to the west, the dog keenly sought out a source of water, and found a vein of it coursing northward. She stopped to drink and found the effort strained her immensely - so she abandoned this too, and forced herself to keep on going west. Szechuan was half starved and dehydrated, her mind aflame and her body left wanting, by the time she reached the lake. Perhaps here her luck would change.

I should be able to reply fairly quickly! :)

After the encounter with Grimm, there was a lot on Elwood's mind. Initially, he was pleased with himself and couldn't believe it had even happened in the first place. But the longer he thought about it, the more his perspective changed. He didn't feel any differently towards Grimm; there was no desire to seek her out or spend more time with her. Instead, he thought of Finley and tried to swallow the guilt that bubbled in his stomach.

He had no allegiance to his co-Beta -- they were not in a relationship, and she had very carefully kept him at arm's length. So why did this feel so wrong?

He hoped that a day trip away from the caldera would help, so he set out with the intention to hunt. His travels carried him to Big Salmon Lake; both his mind and body were tired by the time the tarn's glassy surface was in view. But something stopped him short, a good distance from the lake. His eyes focused on some sort of canine, its hair short and disheveled and its face torn. Elwood's hackles stood on end and he froze, watching silently as the beast started to drink.

:D omg hi

The dog gulped down mouthfuls of water. She did not lap at it quietly, not the way she used to. There was an imperative driving her actions now - and while it hurt to move her jaw even the tiniest amount, she needed the water. Her guzzling was obnoxiously loud, and coupling that with the sharp pain and the even sharper cold that the water placed upon her ripped face, Szechuan did not notice the spy. Her belly was half filled when she chose to pull back - gasping for air, gritting her fangs from the wave of pain as it crested a certain mental peak - and she sagged to the shoreline, rump plopping against the mud. Rivulets of water mixed with other fluids (pus and old blood, mostly) dribbled down her chin and chest.

*waves*

Elwood watched, simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the strange canine. He could hear the exaggerated sounds as it gulped and swallowed the water; from his point of view, he could only see a portion of the creature's mangled face. Obviously its wounds were inhibiting it from drinking properly.

His instincts told him to turn and slink away before he was undetected, to return to the caldera and tell Peregrine what he had seen. But he remained rooted to the spot, much like an onlooker staring at a train wreck. He was unable to tear his eyes away from the beast as it slumped to the ground, observing with a wrinkled lip as water and gore dripped from its mouth.

Szechuan loosed a deep-gut sigh, and her lips trembled. A fine spray of fluids crested the air and rained down upon the source of her drinking, but besides this there was little change in her. The water sloshed in her belly and made her want to throw up; she had ingested it to quickly, and there was too much of it, so her stomach urgently rebelled. The girl shut her eyes tight and willed the water to stay down - and for the most part, this seemed to work. Until she tried to stand up. As soon as her butt was level with her shoulders, as soon as she was turning to be on her way, a great spasm took hold of her - and up came the water. Her shoulders hunched and her head tucked nearly to her breastbone, and then a torrent of foul-smelling, watery bile began forcing its way up and out of her esophagus.

Eventually, Elwood wised up and decided to conceal himself from view. He certainly didn't want the canine to lay eyes on him; he didn't know what or who it was, and though it was severely injured, it could still prove to be dangerous to his pack. Without a word, he slunk into a copse of bushes to his right, just in time to see the thing start to vomit.

His eyes widened as it retched, spilling water and bile onto the ground. He clenched his own teeth, fighting the urge to perform a similar act. He forced himself to swallow as he tried to assess the situation; was it rabid? Where had it come from? Was it even a wolf? Whatever it was, he didn't like it.

A pool of hot sick - mostly water, thus quite diluted - puddled between her wide stanced forelimbs. She breathed heavily for a moment or two, then spat residual muck in to the soil. There was a rustling nearby which caught her attention, and quite suddenly she was lifting her head and turning, doing a sharp pirouette in the direction of her right side - but the eye there had grown milky with a strange film, and Szechuan was only able to differentiate the subtle shift in light as a nearby tree shaded her.

There was no further disruption save for the breeze through the trees above, and thus she ignored it. Both eyes blinked slowly, and she took a drawn out inhalation through her nose - but the scent of whatever it was (if there was something) could not be detected. Her puke was too pungent even when watered down. The girl then grunted and turned away.. Deciding it was best to keep on moving, perhaps try another source of water once her belly had settled a bit.

Sorry for such a short thread, but it was interesting nonetheless! :)

Elwood held his breath as the beast pivoted; he wondered if it had smelled him, or perhaps if it had heard the sound of leaves rubbing together. He held infinitely still, watching and waiting. If the canine made its way towards him, he would bolt and run for home.

He quickly scratched that thought -- though it was injured, he didn't want to lead it to the caldera. Instead of beelining for the squat mountain, he would attempt to take it on a wild goose chase, zig-zagging across the flatlands. His mind raced as he tried to plot out his plan.

Luckily, the mangled creature soon turned and began to shuffle away, heading north. Slowly, Elwood released the air that had been trapped in his lungs, feeling his heart racing against the cage of his chest. Once he determined that it was safe, he began to pick his way home, moving quietly and cautiously at first before accelerating to a flat-out run.