Phoenix Maplewood will I find you when the night is over?

somewhere within the maplewood, smoke made the setting sun seem apocalyptic. a glowing red orb; like a single unblinking eye, descended carefully through the smoke and over the horizon. the woman took a brief moment of stillness as she moved amongst her packmates to observe quietly the burns that laced themselves up her limbs, never before having seen wounds quite like this. she felt sick, but not because of the garish wounds. shale was missing, and somehow she knew - this was another blow, another curse. she did not know how much longer they could keep dodging. 

seating herself gingerly upon burned limbs, she called low for @Aditya, something still and heavy settling in alongside the nausea.

assuming this is pretty soon after the fire?

fire had been omnipresent in his life--but from a distance. he'd always had the luxury of many miles between him and the blazes that ravaged the southern coast. he had heard personal testimonials from those affected, had seen how flames could leave a permanent scar on an ecosystem. still, none of it had prepared him for the day where fire grew seemingly out of nowhere--

from a thing of tales to a living, almost breathing crisis.

adi tried to comfort those more grievously wounded as best as he could, knowing the healers could deal with their physical injuries. he was responsible for tending to their hearts, and after hours of murmured, soothing whispers, he rose, too, and just in time, as dawn's voice called for him from a short distance away.

he came up quietly beside her, for once having no words to give her. he sat in silence, eyes locked on the dismal crimson sunset. the names of the missing rang through his skull, the headache that wouldn't go away, and he found it just as hard to breathe now as it had been in the center of the fire--the cost of this freak incidence was unbearable.

yeah! I was assuming post-timberlake finding but keeping vague on that.

he arrives and settled close to her, and she could not offer words to the silence between them. his gaze settled not on her but the sun, and hers followed his. a moment passed until she could no longer look at the unblinking shape, and settled her gaze on him instead. she touched her muzzle to his shoulder, light, simple gesture that was withdrawn after a moment. something needed to break the silence that became almost a solid thing. 

"we'll need to establish a cache. the most fit need to hunt, and someone join Sebastian in gathering herbs. borders can wait. I want everyone close, the pups -"  she broke off, swallowing against the burning in her throat. blink, look back to the sun. "I could go to Easthollow." pride has no place here now, and they need desperately all the aid they can receive. she lapses into silence again, and imagines somewhere beyond the hiss and crackle of dying flames.

post-Timmy is fine!

her touch startled him; he may have flinched slightly, imperceptibly, but his mind was so far removed from his body that it was the former more affected than the latter. he couldn't remember the last time she had touched him. there had been such an emotional canyon between them, this past moon--and it felt bridged somewhat, now, in the wake of this crisis.

adi nodded. "you should go to easthollow," he said, voice low and hoarse. "they'll have seen the smoke by now, i think. i will lead the hunts--" he thought, suddenly, of shale. the hunter's absence was conspicuous, especially when dawn, and not the boy's father, came back with timberlake. he feared the worst, and he knew dawn likely did, too.

"your uncle," he rasped, "is among the missing. sunny and i will step up in his absence." and as for the near future. . . "i think, if the flames stay clear of the trees, that this will be our new home. do you agree?"

it had been a long time coming. the maplewood had been home to aditya since he'd first set foot here. but they'd had grayday to think about, first, and by the time he had died, everyone slowly got used to the plains. now, with their old territory ablaze, it would seem that they had no choice. morningside must sleep somewhere else. . .why not under the familiar boughs of these woods?