Meadowlark Prairie the irony of dying on your birthday

Tagging for visibility for a pack: @Raven @Finley @Elwood @Aaron @Potema @Cicero @Vandal @Snake :)

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There is little on West's mind that isn't cold or need. Each step is shaky and several times she stumbles face first into the snow, taking in a mouthful at a time only to spit it out. Her teeth chatter and her nose drips, freezing by the time it touches the fur on her snow. The feeling in her toes have long been gone and she doesn't know if she's table to even move her ears or tail and when she tries without looking, there are no answers. Lazily, her head turns to see a slight shake in the limp limb but the disconnect in her mind still leaves her questioning whether or not it had been her or the wind.

West tries another step in the several feet deep snow only to fall forward as if the ground is ripped from beneath her. The pain shoots from deep in her wasting muscle tissue, shooting the rest of the way through her spine. She lays there in a heap, memories flooding to the forefront of her mind as she remembers this once before. It had been a drought then, leaving her helpless and sick and sure the next step would be death. She croaks out a strangled sound from her throat and lowers her head to rest on thickened, compressed snow that hadn't yet frozen into ice. It chills her limbs even more but the numbness isn't enough to hide the pain that takes over. Silence keeps her jaws shut then as she becomes nothing more than a still stain in the pearly snow.

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Although there was absolutely no good reason for Raven to be out here—away from the cave and the caldera altogether, right after a horrible blizzard—nonetheless: here she was, traipsing through the deep drifts of snow. She had only meant to take a quick potty break, then she'd spotted yet another dead moose in the distance and decided to check it out. How she wound up on the wrong side of the territory's borders, Raven couldn't say. She was terrible at telling directions in the best of conditions and, right now, the world was a blurry smear of endless white. Could you really blame her?

Because she was on a flat plain—not that she really knew the first thing about her current whereabouts—the wind had pushed the snow into drifts along the fringes, leaving only a foot or two of pristine, sparkling snow on the meadow itself. The Gamma was already skimming along the upper crust, thanks to her light build and natural snowshoes, but suddenly she could actually see beyond the snow dunes. She stopped, squinting her yellow eyes, and yelled, "Aha!" when she spotted the caldera... in the distance... in the opposite direction...

Unsurprised at herself, she turned. Mid-spin, she saw a dark shape in the snow. A groan hit her ears. With a loud blink, the medic carefully trekked over toward the lump and found herself peering down into a set of pretty green eyes.

It was within her nature to leave her pups every once and a while. She often left them in the capable hands of Miraak, or one of her brothers if they were available, and she ran. Even though the cold burned her body, sending needles through her paws as they hit the ground, even though she had spent too much time cramped in the tunnels and her body was soft, she ran. The witch sped past the borders, intending on circling the field beyond the Woods before returning to her children. The snow slowed her path — she fell into a snow drift, the half-Arctic female chuffing the snow from her nose. Potema chuckled at herself, shaking what snow she could from her pelt, but she stopped dead in her tracks at a garbled whimper from nearby.

Her hearing had become remarkably better once she became a mother. It was almost supernatural. From a distance she caught the sound of a wounded creature. Her head rose as she scrambled from the divet in the snow. She was not the only one to hear the noise, remarkably. No, there was another, dark-furred, about the same age as she. Potema chuffed as she approached, her movements slow as she assessed the situation. Do you know her? She inquires of the golden-eyed woman, looking down at the injured creature.

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Snow flutters across her coat like a shaken snow globe, and her head spins similarly too. She squeezes her eyes together and scrunches up her face, unaware of the new company she has. Her eyes fly open after a second and what should have been an unblotted expanse of prairie is interrupted by a dark woman directly meeting her gaze. West blinks a few times and shakes her head, trying to lift it a fraction higher to sweep up what is left of her dignity. By then, another—opposite in appearance as the first—comes to scrutinize the situation. Her head bobbles in her direction.

“Fuck,” she says as she swings away. Her attention refocuses on her legs that ache to move with fire in her joints numbed by the cold. When she is halfway to standing, she turns away from the two as her back arches and bile hacks out of her mouth, staining the snow a dark yellow as her stomach lurches a second time into a second spot. “I feel like a mountain fell on me.” Her legs shake beneath her, never quite able to get her to full mast as she sways to and fro, final falling back on her rump between the two women.

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aaron was looking for food. it was ridiculous, really, but the children had been all over him again and he needed to escape. looking for food for a valid excuse to leave, he felt. even in the mountainous piles of snow he had to wade through, he decided he wouldn't leave until he found something-- otherwise it'd be a waste and he might've died for nothing.

in the distance, he spotted a brown lump in the snow. everything was cold and wet and he couldn't scent what it was very well, but it looked like a deer or something had passed out right there. he moved towards it, pausing only when he watched raven walk right over the thing. it got up, turning out to be a rather attractive woman with a vile smell. she threw up twice and then spoke, and he moved towards raven. it was instinctual, almost, this woman could be sick or hostile and he didn't mind the inky medic, so he'd rather be there to protect her. it was, afterall, his duty was a man.

it was then that he realized there was another woman here (goodness the area was just filled with them), she blended in more with a pale white coat. he narrowed his gaze at her, but said nothing-- silently warning her not to try anything funny. raven could focus on the sick girl if she wanted, but he kept a watchful eye on them both.

They peered at one another for a beat, until movement caused Raven to look upward again. She licked her lips a little nervously as a white she-wolf with a missing eye closed in on them. The Gamma studied the blank eye, deciding it was an old injury. She was just shaking her head no when her attention returned to the invalid even as the she-wolf muttered an oath and promptly vomited yellow bile into the snow.

Although this was no pack mate, the medic couldn't just ignore the stranger's plight. Glancing at the most recent arrival—this time, a familiar face—Raven sank down into the snow beside the ill wolf. "Describe your symptoms to me. Can you tell me your name? And where you're from?"

She listened for a response, even as she already found herself thinking ahead. She would never take a sick stranger to the caves, where she could possibly infect the entire pack, puppies included. Raven didn't even want to cross the caldera's borders. But she did want to help, so even as she kept her ears pricked toward the ailing she-wolf, she glanced around herself as if hoping shelter of some sort would spring up out of nowhere.

That didn't happen, of course; everything remained a white blur. "Aaron?" the caregiver called to her pack mate lingering nearby. "Can you find somewhere we can take her so she's at least not so exposed?" Even a tree would suffice. Anything was better than lying out here on the open meadow, to be preyed upon by predators, the elements or a little bit of both.

*throws Vandal in*

He let out a sigh, his breath turning to mist before his eyes as white paws trudged through the deep icy snow. The large brute's off-white and silver fur bristled throughout his spine as countless flakes of ice continued to fall from the heavens, gradually coating his back as he searched the snow-covered plains. Vandal had caught the lingering scent of Potema recently passing the borders and naturally, Vandal found himself venturing in pursuit, away from the dark coverage of the forest.

The tyro's cerulean eyes gleamed through the haze of white that continued to obscured his vision, dark silver ears remained arched forward as he listened carefully to the sound of voices up ahead. Quickly, his large paws guided him in their direction, blue eyes gradually falling upon a group of gathered wolves within the cold, one of them being Potema. With this, Vandal slowly approached the group, dark ears pivoting a top his head as he listened to the words that were exchanged between those gathered, his cold eyes then curiously peering to the ill stricken female for a moment before glancing to the bile that stained the snowy ground. Allowing a small chuff to escape him, the male gradually came up behind Potema and silently stood himself to one side of the white woman. There, the tyro quietly observed the current situation, eyeing the others, though his sapphire gaze would eventually return to to his pack mate as he remained within the background.

The woman vomits, and Potema takes a step back. In any other situation the woman would have flung herself into the fray and assisted the black-furred woman, but the thought of her children becoming sick because of her charity stilled her. 

Another male arrives and sides up to the black-furred woman who very rapidly begins asking questions, his glare suspicious. She opens her mouth to protest, but luckily for her she has her own escort. The witch nods at Vandal, then gestures towards the sick woman. Vandal, please, check her fur and see if she has a fever,

the man nodded, though it was only because raven was his superior in this pack-- otherwise he would've preferred to leave the woman to die. she was ill, and he preferred not to get himself sick. he stared at the stranger for a few moments, before sniffing and leaving to find somewhere for her. he would come back later to see if they would still need it-- or if these strangers would take her off their paws.

last post from me!

I am sorry for the delay.

A lot happens very suddenly that she struggles to follow along. Another shows up and she looks warily in his direction but she diverts back when the familiar voice asks her a question. She sends her gaze back to the dark woman to consider what to say but there's a pause when she gives the first male a job. He disappears to complete the task and she works to stand on all four legs. With her limbs shaking beneath her, she takes a careful step away from her sick to clear the smell from her nose. 

She glances to male with a flash of her teeth in warning. 

"I don't have a fever," she says to the white woman. She feels compelled to move again but in neither direction does she feel comfortable. "I am in pain," she speaks to describe her "symptoms" as nondescript as possible, "my joints are older than I am, it seems." And the cold offers a mask to hide and present arthritis to those none-the-wiser.

Quite a few things happened in the following moments: shortly before Aaron departed, another wolf appeared as if to take his place. Raven looked at the new arrival with natural, impersonal wariness, especially when the white she-wolf addressed him, commanding him to check the ailing female. Was Raven not already clearly rendering aid? She felt no possessiveness over the stranger, though she felt mildly insulted because they were essentially ignoring her completely.

"I've got this," she said in a friendly, patient voice, taking a step back to make room as the she-wolf climbed to her feet. Noticing her shakiness, Raven hesitated before moving nearer with the intent to offer support. She tried to catch the other female's eye, her expression asking, Is this okay? Meanwhile, she cataloged the list of symptoms. There was not much she could—or, rather, was willing to—do for an outsider, however the information did put her at ease. Pain wasn't contagious, after all... although everything depended on its source.

"The pain's primarily in your joints?" she repeated. "Anywhere else?" she pinned on before glancing at the other pair of strangers and then back to her patient. "I'd like to take you somewhere else for shelter and so I can better assess you. But if you're be more comfortable going with them, by all means. It's entirely up to you, of course." The caregiver took a step backward as if to give her space to make a decision. Judging by the woman's show of teeth, Raven doubted she would go with them but the choice was hers to make.

As he silently watched the sick female, Van's ears twitched as he caught sound of Potema's request, the male's cold sapphire eyes peering to the darker hued female momentarily and then gradually to the male that soon took his leave from the gathered group. Pausing as the woman unsteadily picked herself up, the Tyro began to take a step forward toward the afflicted woman as requested, only to find himself being greeted by a set of pearly whites. With this, a low rumble sounded within his throat in response, his eyes glared back at the woman and the fur upon his back bristled on end as he then placed his paw back to the ground. Silently, Van positioned himself beside Potema once again, ears pivoting a top his head as the woman went on to explain that she was not sick and that it was just merely pain within her joints that hurt more than anything.

The brute couldn't help but glare from a distance at the pained woman, his cold eyes slowly looking to the raven colored woman as she also attempted to tend to this stranger. Quietly he stood and listened to the others words, his bushy silver and white tail giving a thrash behind him as he turned his attention to his pack mate.

The male does not get any closer and instead, Raven insists that she has it. West focuses on her for a moment but she becomes blurry, her eyes tired. The worry of the other two wolves began to creep up along her spine and so she turns, trying to pick herself up again and move in the direction of the darker female. West gives them a final glance as she struggles, stumbling off after Raven and trying her best to explain along the way without falling asleep.