Firefly Ravine occasionally glancing up through the rain

oh let's call this dated 10/7 shall we-- @Colt @Fire

The interaction with Mou had left her empty of feeling. She returned to Colt with a stony face--yes, even more stony than usual--and they continued on in silence, the Redhawk always a few paces faster than her hobbling gait. They weaved around the mountains and then sloped downward, in the rough direction of the forest they might have found refuge in.

Maegi didn't know. She had no idea. If they found the girl, it would be by chance. Colt had been kidding himself when he thought she would be at all an adequate guide.

They padded down a deep gorge toward a stream, where Maegi drank, her mind many miles away. She stared into the water, half-frozen, only just broken up by the steady current. Her reflection--scarred, bloodied--rippled before her, and she dashed the surface with a paw in disgust, stepping away, tears burning in her eyes. She sat sullenly by the water, looking elsewhere--

Looking, really, at nothing at all.

Something in his guide had changed.  She'd not been much of a talker initially, but she seemed even more withdrawn of late.  Colt could have asked, but honestly, he did not know her well enough to want to.  The uncle in him looked at her and had some level of compassion, but the brother in him saw a means to an end, and it was an end he needed to reach.  Prying would only jeapordize that.

They took a pause near the water, and he drank a ways away from her, then turned and looked back along the gorge they had come from.  The sea, then an island, then... what?  He wasn't even sure she knew where she was going.  The trail they followed had shown no sign of her, and from what he knew, there was a chance she didn't want to be found.  What a fuckin mess.

He continued to look, not quite ignoring Maegi, but not engaging either.  He left her to her thoughts... he had enough of his own to spare right now.

Phoenix had left Lost Creek Hollow without a word.  She had planned on thanking Terance for his hospitality, but as far as she was concerned, they were even.  She had helped Hyacinth mend their former alpha from death's door and had saved the life of Cassiopeia when they had still resided upon the mountain — the least they could do was offer her a place where her safety was ensured for a few weeks.

She had left @Dirge somewhere nearby.  The thought of going back to the Plateau was beyond terrifying to her.  She didn't know whether or not Tegan had even made it out alive, and if he had, what version of events the Redhawks had been told.  She was strong enough now she could handle @Niamh's childish ire and Quixote's holier-than-thou countenance.  She could handle Colt, if he thought her as disloyal.  But what if Raven resented her for whatever had been relayed?  For Tegan's probable death?  Could she handle that?  She supposed she would find out soon enough.  

Phoenix trailed lazily through the snow, head held low.  She saw Maegi's tired, slinking from before she saw anything else and she felt herself bristle and stiffen.  Her own red fur stuck out in the later seasons like a target.  If she saw Maegi, Maegi had surely seen her.

But then her eyes trailed to Colt, and her heart stopped.  With no other Blackfeather in sight or smell, she took one step closer, then another.  Colt? Her voice was strained and stretched thinner than he would remember but there was a relief and tenderness that couldn't be denied.

Then, she saw something. A flash of red and cream. Her eyes fixed on it, focused, and she let out a tiny gasp as she realized who it was. Then when she said his name--Colt--her face contorted with anguish, and she looked away, removing herself from the happy reunion.  This was not her scene; she was not on stage.

It was the reunion with Ramsay and Euron that she might not ever have, and she hated the girl for it. At the same time, the knowledge that she had done something good--and, perhaps, lessened the Redhawks' hatred for her home, if Colt managed to convince them of her good deed--suffused her with the slightest bit of warmth.

She sat, teetering on this moral precipice, ears only vaguely registering the sounds of their speech.

He pushed them both, as fast as her pace would allow, and tried to let that suffice.  But at least the travel let him drift, and not focus on things that didn't need thinking on right now.  One thing at a time.

He didn't see her right away, when she came up on them, but her voice sent his head whipping around.  Fire!  She might have only taken a few steps, but he bounded, closing the distance as quick as he could and moving to embrace her and make sure she was unharmed.  For the most part, looked that way.

Where were you? he asked, voice hoarse with a little worry, but mostly relief.  Shit, he'd searched for months out here, only to find out Blackfeather had her, and then what?  What was she doing out here?

She doesn't even care when he calls her Fire instead of Ceara.  She is so happy to see him.  Blackfeather, she breathes, I escaped.  She helped me escape.  She motions to Maegi, who looks as if someone slapped her across the face.  But I was on the wrong side of the mountain.  I —  There was so much to explain, and she felt pressured to explain it all now because what if he doesn't forgive her for not coming home immediately?  Abandoning him, for all intents and purposes.

He is the first familiar face she's even seen since Blackfeather — wait, that wasn't right, was it?  She remembers Bruges and her face falls.  He had died protecting her and Niamh would never forgive her for that.  She was sure of it.  But she covers this up for now.  She'd drop it on him later.  Is — did Tegan make it out? 

last from me, amigos!

She helped me escape. Finally, redemption for the lie the golden bitch had spit out, at the border. Not that Maegi cared--and it seemed like the man believed her, anyway. But it was, if not nice, at least satisfactory to hear the truth aloud. She didn't have to do it, after all. She could have let her rot down there.

Maegi rose to her paws, a little unsteady, and made a small sound, dipping her head to the Redhawk pair. Glad you two are reunited, she said, her voice wooden. Her eyes were fathomless and unreadable as she stared at them, and then she turned away, tail low. I assume you can find your way back from here, she continued quietly.

If they gave her some sort of fond farewell, she'd stop and take it, but she didn't expect it. Maegi just wanted to go home--

And she didn't even want that, really.

What did she want?

<3

His sister backed up the girl's story and Colt turned his attention to her, gratefully.  She made a farewell, but it was hardly warm.  Understandable.  The trip hadn't exactly been one of friends, mutual interest aside.

Still, Colt couldn't let her just go.  Thank you, he said, and the sincerity in his tone was undeniable.  As far as he was concerned, the hatchet was buried.  He had no hatred left for blackfeather, and hadn't for a long time.  This was all he said, though.  There wasn't much else he could do for her, aside from watch her go.

Then he turned back, giving his sister another embrace.  Tegan is fine, he said, his voice tightening.  I... they didn't tell me.  I searched for weeks, but I didn't know where you were.  And when she said she knew and that you were taken, I had to come after you. He'd been the only one.  No other plans had even been made, nothing said as far as he knew.  It was like none of them had even cared.

Perhaps all of this was for the best, in the end.