Rattleskin Redoubt Go chase the safety, not the rush

She'd left the valley in search of something more; something within herself, perhaps. Andromache found herself far beyond the safety of their little island, wandering among the odd square spires, wondering what kind of allies they might find among the sands. Coyotes, @Faustus had said; such creatures were rarely more than servants in Myros. How could he expect to ally with them?

Yet she thought of @Euryalos and softened to the idea. After a time it occurred to her to seek out others — but what she did not expect was to find someone. A dark coyote, a little thing who smelled of others, surely those Faustus had met. She saw the coyote first in flashes through the spires, and called out, pursuing briefly.

That turned out to be a mistake.

The coyote turned on her in a storm of snarls and snaps; Andromache fell back at first, crying out. Yet her assailant persisted, and quickly she found herself turning to anger, to violence. It was over swiftly after that.

She was bleeding. Dizzied and still in shock, Andromache was hardly aware of more than that. But she thought to herself that it was not so bad, turning, blood dripping thickly from her jaws and her throat. It wasn't. She would be okay.

Then the snake bit her.