The Tangle bleak

set a few days after this

Emptiness. 

That is all Orobashi felt as he trapsed through thick brambles, not caring or particularly aware of the direction he was heading. He paid no mind to the thorns that tore relentlessly at his pelt; it was nothing compared to the unbearable aches that ravaged his body. Even the spirit had become unusually quiet - the vessel had searched his pounding head for its voice but had returned with nothing but confused, muddled thoughts. In the end, he deemed it easier to not think at all.

Days passed and his wounds began to fester. Orobashi hobbled with a steady limp until he could go onwards no more. Starved, parched, and in no fit shape to hunt, he wished nothing more than to disappear. Crawling into a hollow log to wait out his demise, it was the Kannushi that paid him a visit in a dream. So long it had been since he'd seen such a wretched and beloved face. And then it was the pale girl - oh he resented her so.

Hours blur past and his chest continued to rise. Such a sick joke it was that the spirits had been so eager to take him mere days before, yet now had seemingly vanished.

Life was so cruel.

Hunting land prey was not her forte, not by a long shot. Still, when the sea gave her little to scavenge, she had to find food somewhere, and while she tended to avoid the area for personal reasons, it was the scent of rabbits that drew her in. She snuffled about, whiskers pushing through dried leaves as she sought a recent trail to follow. When winter came, it would be easier, she thought- their tracks would lead her right to them. 

She smelled the other wolf before she heard them- and the scent alone was worrisome enough. She crept through the undergrowth, until she could hear the faint draw of breath nearby, slow, laborious. She peeked through a clump of thistles, past the billowing fluff of their seeds to spy a slender figure prone on the ground. She sidled forward, briefly thumbing through the maze of a path she'd taken to get to this point in the thicket so she could run back if she had to. 

Others might not have wasted time, but something about the situation seemed off. He'd been in a fight, not long ago- impossible for her to tell at this distance if he was still hunted or not. 

She whined softly at first, and then again, watching to see if he would wake, or if he was truly unconscious.