Lion Head Mesa use somebody

a weary sigh broke the serene silence of the wellspring. gucci set his head back upon his wrists, paws partially submerged in the softly rippling waters.

despite his honest efforts to dispel it, his foul mood persisted. awful images of crowfeather's hypothetical mangled corpse flashed trough his mind at the worst of times. he was unconsolable in his worry and fear.
 
worst of all, he thought he knew where the dark man had gone, but to admit that knowledge to himself could only lead to worse outcomes, once the outpost never sends word of the prince's arrival...

he exhaled trough his nose. the tip of his tail curved over the stone edge and touched the water with every breath the little man took.

oh, what horrible fate had befallen his friend?

surprised to find gucci still alive, qiao strode past the wellspring towards the keep's herb cache without a word.

when she returned, the house gnome still lingered in the water -- he reminded her in a way of the unpleasant marsh-weasels of her homeland.

only those did not seem so disfigured.

i am surprised you have not been offered to the red god as tribute. qiao remarked, coming to rest by the shimmering water. what apoplexy hounds you?

deep in thought, he did not react to another's arrival, and thought it good that they did not approach him. he wasn't in the mood for pleasantries, even though he desperately needed a distraction.

one fuzzy ear twisted around when he was eventually address. the irises moved to watch the speaker out the corners of his eyes, yet the little head did not lift. 

"ahm a tad too battered t' be anyone's gift." what else could she have meat by "tribute"?

gucci did not recognize the woman, despite having met her once before.

he sighed again.

"ya must've heard..." he dipped his whole paw into the cool waters, watching the small waves it made. "prince crawfetha's gone." that was said drily, as if it was explanation enough.

qiao made no effort to correct gucci on his misinterpretation. when he felt the knife, he would know.

she watched as he dipped a clubbed paw into the pool. ringlets swirled away from his touch.

the prince was gone. this qiao had not known. had she not seen him only yesterday? gone? and where, exactly, does a cripple hobble off to? perhaps this was ramesses' design; maybe the prince had outlived his usefulness. yet that seemed decidedly short-sighted for a creature like ramesses.

perhaps he had returned to mereo.

"how would ah know?!" gucci did not mean to raise his head nor his voice, but the reaction was proportional to his own feeble denial of the dark wolf's fate. he bit his lip and put his head back between his frontlegs, then promptly put his paws over it, folding his ears over his eyes.

"auughh, ahm sorry, his rooms were found empty, n he ain't got nowhere t' be-" expect that he did, didn't he? "-n even missus tavina has been askin' 'round 'bout his whereabouts but ah dunno- ah dunno what's happened t' 'im!" a whine got out of the toy breed.

he gathered his limbs close together, and whimpered; "oh what a miserable fried ah turned out t' be in the end." 

gucci's voice carried over the fountain, plaintive and wrought in an emotion qiao was unable to reciprocate. as he buried his head among his stubby toes, qiao concealed a smile: even the cripple was able to give this stunted creature the run around. if gucci had a headstart, would he truly even be capable of tracking down the lost prince with those stumpy little nobs he called legs?

it is not as if he can get very far. qiao pointed out, expression sly. have you not attempted to find him?

gucci gave a shrill whine. 

"-f course ah tried! me n missus majie went trackin' his trail but-" the edges of his mouth pulled downwards, his bottom lip quivered. "but we ain't seen neither glance nor trace o' him!"

the toydog was very near to tears - when he realised something important.

the chihuahua's paws slid down and off his face, until his ears were freed and bounced back into an erect posture. his head rose and turned to finally take a good look at his conversation partner. her appearance immediately rung a bell.

his little mouth gaped. "you!" then he clasped it shut, recalling his manners."you was there the day the pharaoh found me." his head tilted to one side. "how's it you live 'ere now?" she seemed a tad... standoffish with the gold-caped man during that encounter.

to gucci's great credit, he had tried. that alone softened the hard edge of qiao's stare.

prince crowfeather missing was a novelty, but not a problem as far as qiao was concerned. perhaps she was wrong in that assumption - perhaps he was of great importance to ramesses. one thing qiao knew from her singular encounter with the prince was there were not many stones they needed to overturn before they found him.

she straightened as gucci approached, a revelation clutched between his lips like a prize. my services to the pharoah have been bought. qiao's lips turned in a scant smile. jester, prince, seer -- we all serve a purpose to the king. would you like to know where i think your little prince is?

it did not take divination, or even great prowess, to single out where crowfeather was likely heading. qiao had been clued in from germanicus alone that the prince was something special to him - she thought it no coincidence that crowfeather was gone within few scarce days of her relaying germanicus' message.

"bought"? with what currency? the thought came to him as soon as the coyotess spoke, but the man thought it'd be rude to ask so directly. 

besides, what she said next he found far more ear-pricking. the chihuahua gasped.

"y'know? y' truly know?" he hoped it was no trick, no game. the questions gnawed at him day-night, day-night. 

"please speak!" the little neb yapped, hopeful.

no trick, no game. qiao's olive eyes danced, but no beguiling emotion sparked behind them.

he is likely on his slow little way to mereo. qiao could have held this piece of information over gucci's head, and truly made him dance -- but there was little about his stunted, male form that intrigued her. it would be like tormenting a rat before dispatching it.

that is, if the cold or hungry wolves have not already gotten to him. qiao shrugged her shoulders. with his current condition, he very well may be dead.

the chihuahua inaled sharply, ears briefly flattening before rising again.

"ah thought so." he breathed, not looking at the woman, but instead at the wellspring beside, his train of thought racing with newfound speed.

it was a fear of his, now made terribly real by the confirmation of another. he'd gleaned some truths about his dark friend's heart in their many conversations together, particularly; who it was it belonged to. 

the lover put together trough many vague references and forlorn gazes directed at some distant spot past the red tower's walls shaped himself into quite a character, irresistible to the young fire-eyed he-wolf. gucci was empathetic. not that his own life overflowed with romance, but he understood it.

his belief in the rust-woman's good faith wasn't impaired by her cynicism. he was up on all fours at once, and began to with hurried steps head towards the exit.

as he passed the coyotess, gucci halted. 

"thanks a ton n then some, miss." he gave a little dip of the head and a smile that was more forced than sincere, but there was still gratitude in it. "you've alleviated some o' mah worries."

n gave me many more.

as the chihuahua left, he found enough optimism within himself to imagine his friend in the loving embrace of some faceless, tall and dark stranger, both of them joyous and safe, far away from this place which had filled @Crowfeather with so much sadness.

qiao stood as the man rose to leave, quick on little teacup paws to hustle away.

when he turned back to address her, he was met with the slight dip of her thin head.

then she too turned, a dark smile coming to brief bloom across her face before she too left the wellspring and hastened on to her own errands.