Overture Downs and only she can make it right

Sable made the decision, with mourning still in his heart, to not travel back to the Shadewood until he was more fun to be around. Saying goodbye had turned him back into a morose creature, who only wanted to be alone until everything stopped feeling like too much.

So, he went the opposite way, because logic.

It was at least pretty here, he thought as he plodded across what would be a meadow if the snow wasn’t still on the ground. Hen sat astride his shoulders, hiding from the cold by forging a nest in his fur. He didn’t blame it one bit. He’d be hiding in someone else’s fur given the chance.

The young man found a tree to lean against for a moment, then he sank to the ground against it. Hen chirped at him a few times, but allowed it.

Across the pristine white, Sable stared.

Arlette was on the hunt for any wildflowers that might have come up early, or signs of them starting to bloom. She could prepare herself for the incoming spring and where to find certain healing materials. She knew spring was going to be busy for her this year. She barely made it with the cache she had obtained last summer. Now she wanted a head start.

She tried to make note of the things that were coming up from the awakening soil underneath the snow. Sometimes even the roots were good to take, but that would destroy the plant. It was better to do that before the end of summer instead of beginning of spring. Arlette found herself close to a tree in the middle of the plains. She had been so busy she had missed the stranger close by. "Oh! Apologies," she smiled in a friendly matter.

Hen warned him with sharp chipmunk barks of the approaching stranger, before it was back in his shoulder fur. Sable picked his head up off the ground just in time to catch the silver thread of her words, for his mouth to water with the taste of mint. His eyes tracked the colors for a moment, before he focused on the pale woman. Dashed with scars, crimson eyes, and white fur.

She was pretty, he noted absently, far older than he.

No problem He signed first, then rasped out the same, wincing at the pull against his throat.

Arlette had turned to him. Her tail a friendly wag. Luckily the stranger didn't mind it that she had been a little closer. She instantly noticed the rasp in his voice and wondered if it was always like that or if something was ailing him. "On your own?," she asked curiously, decided to not instantly judge the male by his voice and comment on it. She quirked up her lips. Ready to leave if the stranger didn't want any small talk with her. She knew it was absolutely possible for the male to feel that way. She wouldn't be offended.

Sorry for the delay!