Envy too, was skulking about the steep forests; getting a further lay of the land, shifting through the mist and bramble on light feet. Dwindling time to find the last supplies before frost set in.

Cold weather was coming, it felt especially pronounced up here.

Made her shiver. Oh, had she been born with silky locs and flowing hair, maybe then she could've felt the privelage of insulation..; alas, scrawny and cursed at birth, she was not so fortunate.

Made her angry, honestly. She wanted to be big. Wanted to have power beyond what she had to worm her way into. How easy it would all be, no giving up, no transaction, just taking. This envy jealousy festered as it always had.

But she was off track. Silence made the mind reel, solitude too, everything is so loud, thoughts are so loud. She did not want to be alone. Following a mix of scent and disturbed ground, she came up on the trail of the night-cloaked man.

She crept out, pausing to stubbornly shake a bristle from her tail. I wasn't trying to hide. She flicked an ear and moved in close, casual, came in along the side to look out behind him.

Following him, he accused, as if that weren't precisely the truth. She'd offer a light shrug. Wasn't. Then I was. Figure if yer' gonna walk around anyways you may as well do it with someone else.

Oh, definitely not cause she dreaded being lonely.

You distracted me last time I went out looking for supplies— So you owe it to me to come with me this time. You can be a bodyguard.. or something.... There might be cougars out here. A museful grin toyed at pallid features, she looked on for his decision.

Do it Do it Do it; wide eyes communicated in the momentary breath of silence.

How cruel..She feigns insult with an exaggerated gasp, no shortage of dramatics spared in this brief display, her head cast off to the side before it'd snap back, a little snicker released. Well- I'm sure could take em' anyways. She'd shrug.

Probably not.

But she had got his agreement! The theory didn't need to be tested.

But her? Keep anybody out of trouble? Not likely. The wretch was a magnet for misventure, drawn in easily, a moth swallowed by the sun, sated by it and burned all in one.

Compelled to it. They were like to be a terrible duo.

Oh? Do you really run into trouble so often? She'd inquire curiously, taking the lead and assuming a casual pace; calculated steps brought them down lightly-trodden trails, hawkish eyes surveyed the undergrowth. It felt easier now than it had before. An impish glimmer danced in her eyes, held a curious mischief as she halted to glimpse back, head crooked, always crooked. What sort?

S'that what you were out here doing before I got here? I shudder to think of what you might have planned. She snickered, crooked tail briefly swishing across the bracken. Maybe it doesn't follow you, maybe you just are the trouble.

She'd halt her pace, having found a little something to add to the collection. The plant was unassuming from first glance, a stalk of dying white flowers, unsuited to the very near threat of winter. She wasn't picking flowers this time around, though. She began to dig carefully around the base; long nails clearly kept in such a way for this particular act, she kept her movements methodical, she wouldn't be half the talented healer she liked to claim she was if she couldn't unearth a simple root without nickin' it. She displayed a sort of gentleness reserved for nothing else.

Eventually, the stubborn flora was freed from its earthly prison, she kept the stalk intact, useless for medicine, but oh so useful for making sure she didn't have to get dirt in her mouth while she carried it home. Not that I mind, y'know. It gets me excited just thinkin' of all the nice little—or not so little wounds I'll get to patch up. I like challenges, n' I'm good at my job, so don't hesitate to really take one. I'll keep ya in one piece.
She'd inch back into his space, leering up at him with a delighted craze, before turning back to the task at hand, walking a few steps forward.

She liked this game. Liked to be included.

Didn't like that last part, though. God she hated competition, her gaze darkened in kind and teemed with little fantasies of the worst kind; there would be no others because she would make sure of it. There would be none to dethrone her, not without meeting the worst of her ire, an ire tested only once, and left banging against the cell bars of her thoughts, scratching at cocoon walls just begging to find its way out.

Hard to forget that taste, though.

She grew used to the smell of iron, to the stains and smears that slicked ivory surgeon's hands, but the taste? Not like deer, not like coyote, not like not like not like anything else. Grease on gears, and suddenly they worked all that much better. The clarity was like the first breath of clean air she'd ever had, looking down over that still mound of fur. Breath materialized in the crisp air, synchronous, in tune and not on the sidelines, finally, finally, finally.

And she deprived herself of it, that fresh air. She knew what it made her. Wretched thing. All wrong.

But it didn't feel all that wrong, right now. Maybe it was the way he spoke, his indifference paired with her own; crimes weighed but not judged, not judged. She owed it to him and even if she hadn't she would've kept all things close, secrets wrapped in thorns and dragged into the depths of whatever could've sufficed for a heart inside her.

I can keep secrets. She said through a soft breath, a world away and returned in the blink of an eye; she found herself quite... amused. Excited, really. Anticipation, rot, it all seeped from her. But you would find nobody else like me... I'm a rare breed, hard to replicate. A paw rolled forward in gesture before she'd spin around in place, flick a switch, sensitivity now lacing her breath; something tender in her eyes and in her voice. You wouldn't leave, would you?

Leave me. Not when she was starting to like him. No no no no no he couldn't go anywhere. Claws were in deep.

One thing, one weakness in the wretched face of the girl Envy;

She didn't mind being used so long as it meant she got to stay. She'd do anything to spare herself the ordeal of being discarded. Anything anything anything at all.

She didn't make the distinction of being used most times anyways, and if she did she certainly didn't say anything about it. Envy kept herself fixed to this cycle; be loved, be wanted, be needed, be desired, any of those things, any at all and she was in deep. Like an angler fish searching in the dark for another, bodies, souls, everything entangles into one. Chimera.

She was led easily by sweet words and breathy promises; she'd not been the sort to receive them often. And so, she was lulled in by his admission of... devotion, genuine, as far as she could tell; curtains of jest and flowered flattery were transparent in just this moment, enough to see through all that was concealed behind.

She too could obsess. Little kindlings of a fire stirred in that cavernous heart of hers. She looked at him in this way that was all consuming.

I wouldn't let the ground take ya. It'd be a failure on my part n' I don't fail. Not like this, anyways. She murmured, no move to put space between them, no no, she liked to be close. He smelled of something ashen and something sweet. I'd dig you up anyways n' see if I could figure out a work around. You're too fun to die. A grin would tease the corners of her pale jaws, he amused her, validated her, and that was perhaps the most important thing in the world to her. Coat of shame shorn away.

I'll keep our secrets locked away, no telling or tattling. You can do whatever you want. A pause, anticipation hung on soft breath. Just keep an eye out above. Muskrat and Nutu-yikruk like to spy. She'd lean in and whisper the last part, mischief on her tongue.