Phoenix Maplewood Every step you take

Bit o' pp, let me know if you want it changed! ;)

His walk was slow but determined, and his graceful gait was still broken by his limp, with his right foreleg barely touching the ground before he would draw it up again. His body was still sore, but he felt it less now as he moved. The wound on his head had begun to scab over, leaving just the center raw and red. It seemed it was on its way to mending, but Luke could not say the same for the landscape around him. He had thought, nay, hoped, that the north had been spared the wrath of the storm, but he could see that it too now bore an angry scar across it. It would take much more time for this to heal.

He could not hasten much, but he hurried to the rise nonetheless. He could smell the acrid smoke from a distance, his heart beat quickening as each step drew him nearer. When he reached the home of his companion, he swayed and staggered, overcome by the fire-scorched scene in front of him. Nothing had been spared here, and his stomach knotted until bile forced its way up and out of his mouth. He wretched several more times as he searched for her at length, sickened with worry. Days later, with no sign of her, he would be found numb and forlorn, his head hanging as he scouted east fueled by hope alone.

He drew in every scent he could as he walked, desperately hoping to catch a trace of her, and by luck he did. He crossed her path, and with renewed vigor her tracked her, wincing through the pain in his leg as he forced himself to move quicker than he had since the storm hit. When he spotted her, among maples and birches, he stopped and stared for a dumbstruck moment. He thought she was gone. With a whine he launched himself toward her. When he reached her side he did not slow, and with complete disregard for his pain he pounced her, tackling her to the ground. He folded himself on top of her, whining as he covered her face in frantic licks before his teeth set themselves in the fur of her neck, grasping tight as though afraid she would slip from beneath him and be gone again.

A tear slipped down his cheek.