He'd taken to following a few droppings he'd noticed earlier, distinctly rabbit, but it eludes him for a good majority of his tracking. It's like it is teasing him, leaving a beeline of a trail until he comes upon a den with what might have been a fresh scent. The new life sprouting around him, more significant than the last few days, might be enough to draw some of the smaller animals out of hiding. He lingers for a moment, nosing around before he abandons the site altogether. Gavriel picks up his head and peers across the valley, his mountain off in the distance, before he lowers his nose once more to the ground.
There's a part of him that doesn't want to return to the territory until something is either dead in his stomach or dead in his mouth. He'd barely seen Gyda since he'd returned and part of it is because he has little to show for it. Even if he is disconnected from the life growing inside her, despite her letting him be apart of them, he worries not being able to support her might put a damper on his influence. Luckily, the scent comes back several yards away, and he follows it until the rabbit is finally in sight. Thinned out and famished from either traveling or the famine, finding somewhere to be safe, Gavriel lunges forward to give the creature a chase.
He weaves back and forth as the hare darts off and, eventually, out of sight. His pace slows to a trot and he huffs his frustration before he circles back and makes his way home.
I'm just going to jump in, if that's ok
Sorry!
He'd been running for who knows how long, it was impossible to keep track when one's mind is shaken. As this had been his life for the past few weeks. Or maybe it was months? He didn't know anymore. Closing his eyes, he tried to shove images away to forget them all together, or just to the back of his mind. He shook his head to help the process, but ended up tripping over his own paws and collapsed to the ground in a heap. With this simple action, he'd lost all energy to continue or even rise to his feet.
Solus just wanted to sleep now, but something wouldn't let him. It was probably the pain that now consumed his side, caused by the impact. Slowly, a lonely tear formed as he thought about his home, not for the first or last time. It broke him to think everyone he ever knew was laying dead somewhere, but there was always the slightest chance someone else had managed to get away as well. And he'd left, without a second thought about abandoning them.
The male was unaware of the stranger nearby. His senses were temporarily dulled from exaustion and mental state. A whimper escaped him as he silently begged for a way to forget about what happened.
Sorry for the delay. :(
A whimper catches him off guard and he turns, muscles tense, to see another male. His eyes narrow and lips lip to show off his teeth, even if the wolf isn’t paying attention. Gavriel takes a few steps back to add further distance between them, not that there wasn’t enough already, but a precaution. It isn’t common for a wolf to be distracted enough not to see a potential threat, another predator, but what does it say about himself? He’d been distracted enough by the rabbit that he let another come within audible distance.
“You,” he barks, only to gain attention and see if the other wolf is lucid enough. Whether or not it’s an illness taking affect, the wolf is distracted enough harm could have come upon him and it doesn’t seem the faze him.
It's ok
Solus tensed and stopped whining when he heard a voice. From what had happened, he had the impression that everything he heard wanted to hurt him. The male would've gotten up and ran, but he just didn't have the energy. At this point his only defense was to completely stop and hope they pass. He knew it was another wolf, but it was also his own kind that had caused him so much pain. Leave me alone, please repeated in his head.
Though his actions and thoughts pointed to wanting to be left along, he needed someone else around. He had to accept that he wouldn't survive alone for the rest of his life, and that eventually he would want a pack or just another loner like himself.
The wolf doesn't respond as much as he'd like, instead making himself smaller and ignoring his words. Gavriel's eyes narrow and he feels a low growl rumble deep in his chest, nothing more than an inaudible vibration the other wouldn't hear. The stranger is in a territory that borders his home, sure that any of his other members might come by and help ease the wolf out of his pathetic life, but Gavriel didn't have the strength to do it himself
or even care. The famine had played quite a toll. If he did kill the wolf, however, he could feed a few of his own that might eat another of the same species.
The thought alone turns his stomach.
"You are too close to my home and you need to go," he says as his growl increases, stepping forward a few steps to make sure he's heard. A moment later, however, Gavriel turns to leave and no longer waste his time on an adult acting like a mewling infant.
Last from me, sorry for his actions but his family was killed by a larger pack a few months before this took place and he still hasn't gotten over it.
Solus heard the warning loud and clear. He hadn't noticed any borders but was going to take the male's words as the truth. Without wasting much time he rose to his paws and stumbled away, wanting to get as far away as possible before he fell again.
The lighter colored male was carried farther then he thought his feet would take him, and he wasn't going to complain right now. Later, probably, but not now. He'd chosen to travel a small ways back the way he'd come and hoped no one else found him. It wasn't long before the poor guy was out cold.