Redsand Canyon triginta

"@Tierra."

he stood outside her den. germanicus had come to see her recovery and seek her report of the south.

he also meant to discuss reyson as well as their march, as it seemed unlikely to happen now in the formerly expected timeframe.

get this on the log before I lose it <33

Tierra felt less like death than she did but she still did not feel great. She didn’t wish she’d been left to get eaten anymore, which was a total bonus, but she’d lost weight and still had some healing to do. She looked horrible and god, didn’t she know it!? So rest wasn’t a problem - she was more than happy to hide away and make sure nobody saw her like this.

Except she couldn’t really ignore Germ. Ugh, he was going to be pissed. It wasn’t her fault, and she was still convinced of that, but her sister hadn’t seemed to think that for some reason and Germanicus was probably going to think the same thing. Tierra sighed, but got to her feet and went to meet him. Her sides and back were still a mess of healing bite wounds, but the fever had mostly cleared up.

What? Or…. yeah, reporting? She stood uneasily, but tried to look in a way that projected confidence. It totally didn’t matter if he was pissed or not. She rocked that scouting party, okay, and Fennec and Killdeer had said there was no sign of them after. Which meant she and Minne definitely kicked their butts into the next territory.

<3

"yes. tell me of the terrain. the sights."

he looked over her healing back with an eye that offered respect.

"we move today, if you believe it safe. tell me the route the coyotes took to leave."

Well, he didn’t seem upset. Kind of the opposite actually, which perked her right up.

It was mostly quiet and all, not a whole lot different than here if you don’t count all the trees. But there was a kill, like, south south. It was pretty close to the border, so I bet they took off that way. That’s where she’d have gone if she was them. No use trying to climb out when you could just go further down the canyon and miss all that effort.

"very well." he hesitated a moment and then said. "i thank you for your dutiful service."

a moment and then, "i consider this to be greatly part of my evaluation for you as new officer of mereo, tierra." she had done well. she had earned this.

Wait, he really was good with it. Like, of course, she’d done nothing wrong but… cool! Maybe there were a couple of things she wouldn’t have done that way again, and she had totes learned from them, but it was super cool of Germanicus not to call her out on them.

She straightened up a little, but the effect was ruined by the immense grin. Cool! Don’t worry, I’m going to train more, like, as soon as I can. So next time I’ll be way more ready.

"i have all faith in you."

he smiled gently. "now. at ease. and rest. mereo needs you."

if there was nothing else to say, he would retreat and return to his patrols.