In the back of West’s mind, she knew she’d never be fully separated from the poppies. She knew leaving Windsong that she would not have a steady supply and she’d suffered the fate of being away from them. She’d even survived and gotten to the other side with only the needing and wanting her body and mind had for them but she hadn’t felt sick. She’d thought, very briefly, that she could go without them. When Kitsch had found them, presenting them in front of her some time ago, she lost all self-control and fell back into the spiral and she worried she might not have a supply for long. The location the girl had found them did not house many but when she stumbled upon the glen to find a whole section of them, West knew everything would turn around.
In the last several days, she’s taken trips from the caldera to the glen but most of the pods are immature and won’t survive re-rooting them so early. She picked a few a few days ago to take back and replant but they’d already begun to wilt and die off. She doesn’t give up, however, and decides to wait until the weather warms up and they grow stronger. For now, she simply makes the trip from one place to the next to keep her mind at ease.
As West passes the familiar lake on the other side of the forest, she stops to take a drink. The water is cool, chilling her down to her stomach, and she quenches the thirst that has built up. Her mouth is often dry the last few days and she can't get enough but it doesn't stop her from her work. The ground beneath her is muddy, however, and she loses her footing and finds herself head first into the water. It takes a couple of tries but she writes herself, wetter and muddier than she would have liked, and shakes out her fur. The wind blows and gives her a chill and she trembles more than she had been, pivoting back away from the lake to continue on her path.
Walking past the boundaries of Blackfeather Woods was no longer an issue after having experienced the new things beyond the forest. Keelut had gone out on his own, and with company to explore the world, and he didn't think he could ever get enough of it. There were little things out there that didn't catch the curious acolyte's eye, and the plants that he'd found out there and brought back home were simply a rarity compared to the variety he usually found in Blackfeather Woods.
He went west this time, breaking out of the dark without telling anyone, without announcing his departure. He did not believe he would be away for too long, for as much as he enjoyed the outside world he could never get enough of the gloomy swamps back home.
So far he hadn't like his decision too much, the west was boring and plain and devoid of emotions. He would have turned back hadn't he seen the lake in the distance, and even there, he would have found it utterly dull hadn't he seen the amazing idea that girl in the water had come up with. Keelut rushed his pace into a trot, and the emotion pushed it into a gallop, and in long, swift strides he reached the water to join the strange girl with a cannonball into the water. Mud and water were splashed everywhere, and his laughter filled the cold air with warmth. Playing in the mud had never been as exciting back in Blackfeather Woods... Perhaps it was the freedom he felt out here without his entire family wondering what the fuck he found so funny.
West does not get far before she hears the thumping of feet on the ground and her heart immediately sinks to the pit of her stomach. She freezes and becomes a deer in headlights as she slowly turns her head. It is not someone charging at her but still charging and before she realizes it, she’s trickled with the outskirts of the splash. It takes her a few moments, disregarding the child splashing around in the water, for her to settle herself down and let her heartrate return to normal.
She hesitates walking away from the child—the most she wants—but he seems unfamiliar to her. Though the splashing and laughing makes it difficult to really tell but her interest keeps her standing at the bank a little longer than she normally would have.