colt knew it was time, and truth be told, he was ready to go. something told him sadey had passed on, something he didn't truly understand. but there was hurt in his ghost's heart, both to leave and both to stay.
the cowboy swaggered through the crowd quite literally and made his way out onto the sand beneath the bite of the stars. hadn't he died through desert nights like this and still come back to love the view?
he didn't want
@Redbird to see him go; he wanted her last thought of him to be his teasing laughter, hoped she was drunk enough to pass out somewhere with the jawbone and not wake till morning, because he was already slowly lifting in tiny threads toward heaven.
Redbird had lost her mind when that last drink passed her lips. She could barely walk straight at this point, and staggered among the others without a care; oblivious to those she elbowed out of the way, or what she yelled as she inserted herself in to many conversations.
Eventually the chaos of the celebration spat her out beneath the stars. She thought she saw someone else out here with her - blurry, sure, and maybe there were three or four, but either way it was better than being alone.
Ayy! Bring a bitch a drink!
She shouted, stumbled, and then vomited all over the dirt and herself; afterwards as she licked bile off her chin with a burp, she was laughing (crying?) and had forgotten why she'd come out here to begin with.
"jes a plumb mess."
colt's voice was barely audible, more moving his lips than anything at all. he was shimmering, but he turned around and trudged closer; he stooped and tried to wipe a tear from that crimson face.
his gaze tightened.
"i'll always love yew, i reckon."
his throat was hoarse; his chest felt tight; the red eyes glittered, and then colt briggs was gone, a breath of whirling sand that blazed in khamsin heat and then disappeared.
tavina was quite drunk herself, actually, but doctors did not travel without kits; a snuff or two of a ground substance and she was at least upright. akashingo's head doctor could not drink herself into oblivion on a night like this.
after consuming a great deal of water, she found her eyes drawn to the stumbling girl with bright red fur, and dismally followed the drunken guest out into the sand.
the sharp odor of vomit greeted her nostrils and she sighed, approaching.
She couldn't feel her face! Imagine that. There was a numbing to her cheeks and she couldn't tell if she smiled or sobbed, with the stars wheeling overhead.
i'll always love yew, i reckon what?
Oh fuggoff!
Redbird drawled and swung her head around, certain the voice she heard was attached to one of the blurry shapes she had caught earlier - and nearly took off Tavina's head.
OI! Where'd yew come frrr.. ough,
And out of her came a second wave, complete with hors d'oeuvre.
"you've definitely had too much to drink, dear heart," the sesh said, grunting as she attempted to haul the young rogue upward.
she covered both the first and the second mess with sand. "we're going inside. i can give you something to settle your belly, and it will also make you sleep."
She tried to shove the woman away, or shove herself away, or maybe the dirt that seemed to be looming too close; whatever, something was shoved at and Redbird snapped - Nah'm good, don't touch me.
Sleep? Not tired! Yer not my mum; mums are fake news, nobody... Fuggoff, not anything.
Her rambles didn't help her case, neither did her swagger-turned-stumble.
Colt! COLT yew sonova-- Where'd yew go, dicknose...
She was shouting at nothing, and had somehow turned towards the wilderness.
what an insolent little drunkard. tavina had half a mind to simply turn her into the desert. the sesh did not try to help the red wolf again, only looked off to where she was shouting.
"no one is there." her voice was firm if subtle with curiosity.
"come inside now, before you are sick again."
With some further grumbling as Redbird insisted she could drink more, or asserted that her man was right there or some such, she staggered along and with Tavina's help, was herded back to the festivities.