Bearclaw Valley in the end i danced with a ghost

leaving for sapphique by the end of this thread. for visibility: @Ameline

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for all her bluster and the surety she presented to her regina, the cold hard truth was the twitch didn't really want to go. already, her paws itched to turn back, but her conversation with ameline nullified that option.

she had said she would go, even without a backup. and backing out now, no matter how much she wanted to, would make her both a liar and more useless than she had already been to them.

she would go soon. after breakfast.

vail woke from the underbrush with a sleepy croak, lifting paws to rub viciously at her eyes.
spring was doing a number on the girl. she was itchy and she could not stop sneezing. but it beat the terrible cold that chilled her to her bones and forced her to curl up in hollows for most of the day.
stretching long legs, vail ushers herself from the hole she’d carefully made in a patch of sprouting briars, ample protection from anything that might tried to snatch her up while she was unconscious.

twitch traces the borders loosely—pacing, really—biding her time until her stomach made a final snarl that would urge her to hunt. her legs moved on autopilot. she wanders past coyote spikes, a little beyond the mouth of the valley.

she squeezes through bramble and underbrush, and she can feel branches splintering, caught in the plush fur of her neck. she exhales sharply as she exits the thick foliage, ears flattening at the tug from the final branch. "fuckin- ow." she hissed to herself. there are twigs stuck in her fur, certainly, but she cannot be bothered to spend an additional ten minutes to clear them from her coat.

she's a few moments from cursing again when the brush ahead of her rustles, disturbed. movement. she paused, head snapping toward the sound just in time to see something slinking up from the earth—tangled in briars, rubbing at their eyes like it had been buried there all night.

her hackles bristled, instinct prickling against her spine. they weren't a fox nor coyote, but certainly sniffing around where they probably shouldn’t be. sneezing, too—one turned into two, two turned into three. rounds of it, too. for a long moment, she only stared, waiting for them to finish.

vail hadn’t noticed eyes pinned to her. she just kept walking, or more staggering, shoulders slouched as she went.
head lowered between two muscled shoulders and her scrawny frame coiled with tension from a terrible night of sleep.
or lack there of.
when she finally looks up, its with eyes snapping onto a staring wolf. a girl, similar to her in frame—and vail fixes her with a narrowed look and a deadpan lip. what? she asks.

her mouth pressed into a hard line, but she hesitated, tail curling stiffly at her hocks. the girl was looking now, fixing her with a narrow stare, that blank-muzzled what? like twitch was the one out of place here.

she exhaled sharply through her nose. shifted her weight. debated, for half a second, just walking away.

"didn't—uh," she started, then stopped. her voice came quieter than she'd meant. "didn’t see you there." another pause. longer this time, her ears twitching. "you been there all night?"

vail snorts. one of those half-laughs that’s more air than humor. she drags a paw across her face again and blinks slow.
uh, yeah.
a beat. her stare sharpens, catching the hesitation, the almost-walk-away, the way the other girl’s voice softens like she’s not sure what to do with her. vail shifts, lifts her chin.
why, you keeping score?
tail flicks once, rust-colored and lazy. she steps forward, barely, enough for the thorns in her side to catch the light.
you gonna stare all morning or what?

twitch bristled, though it wasn’t obvious. no sharp snap of her teeth, no lash of her tail—just a stiffening at the base of her skull, a flicker of something vaguely uncomfortable that she swallowed down with a click of her teeth.

her gaze skimming past her, then back again. "no," she muttered finally, observing the lift of her chin, the lazy flick of her tail, light catching on the burrs and thorns that clung to her coat like she’d fought the underbrush and lost.

her ears twitched at the challenge in her voice. she’d been ready to just let this be, to gently steer the girl away from the vale and encourage her to move along, but now, her paws are rooted to the earth, something stubborn prickling beneath her skin.

"probably not," a breath, long enough for her to huff with the start of a laugh, a slow creeping smile across her features, "i've heard it makes people uncomfortable. unless you want me to, i guess."

whatever. stare if it helps.
she drops her haunches to the cold earth like she owns it, knees jutting sharp beneath her thin skin.
you here to chase me off? twitch snarls up her nose, flashing teeth. know you got friends hanging around. i can smell them on you. she says, matter-o-fact.
her amber eyes flick, slow and flat.
but she grows bored before twitch can even respond. vail lifts back to her paws and begins to amble off, one long, gangly leg after another. tail swatting behind her. weirdo. she mutters.

she shakes her head at the question, though it feels more challenge. she declines all the same. "too early t' be chasing you." with that, the dark woman is already moving, dragging herself up with the slow, careless energy of a cat stretching in the sun. twitch watches her go, something coiling tight in her chest. fair enough.

she doesn’t care. twitch shakes out her coat, shifts her weight, and readies herself to do the same—to leave, to let this whole thing settle into nothing. then she notices where vail is walking. only a pace of two ahead of her, where the soil is disrupted. it is faint, so faint, but she sees it.

"i wouldn't go that way if i were you," vail doesn't know it, but she’s stepping right toward one of the pits. one of cole’s traps—dug deep into the earth, meant for coyotes and scavengers.

the girl does not seem to care, not really, and a pang of dread rattles through twitch. her paws carry her forward faster than she can stop them, all to shoulder the girl away from her impending doom by near inches. lithe paws skid against soil, kicking up rocks that roll atop the trap. it sinks to reveal the spikes beneath. "'s a pit."

THE FUCK?! she snaps, body twisting, teeth bared for a blink. but then—the ground, caving like breath punched out of lungs, like hers currently. jagged wood teeth waiting just beneath.
she stares. vail plants her feet like roots and glares down at it, chest heaving once. twice. ears flat against her head, before shes scoffing, shoving the other girl rudely away from her.
tch. should’ve let me fall. she spits like a angry cat and begins to stalk away once more, now more... observant of her surroundings.
what kind of fucking freaks dug holes with spikes in them?!

twitch stumbles back a step at the shove, hackles flaring, ears snapping up in that fleeting second of fight-or-flight. her teeth flash—barely, just a flicker of instinct before she reins herself in.

"yeah, well," she grits out, shaking off the touch like it burned, "maybe next time i will."

it’s not true (probably). she knows it, and vail probably does too.

she watches as the girl stalks away, picking her path more carefully this time, shoulders still tense from the near fall. twitch doesn’t move to follow, no, but she pads past the girl, heading north.

her mouth twitches, humorless. "still not going the right way, you know," she breathes in passing.