Otatso Wetlands 40 nights to sit and listen to that midnight train to memphis

No one came. Inanely, she imagined Vaati somehow coming to her aide. He'd last been spotted nearer to Moonspear than this, but a wolf could travel, right? Alya wondered if he considered her worth saving, and then decided that he would likely attempt it either way, just to stay off of Hydra's shit list. Sisters were great like that.

Sitting there thinking about it was doing her no good. Alya gave a few more hoarse cries and tried to free herself once more, but her back leg would take no weight, and she had nothing to grab onto in order to pull herself free. Her front paws found no purchase in the mire, and for all her wriggling, she still felt as though a skeletal fist was curled around her ankle. Suddenly, she imagined some giant, loathesome raccoon trapped beneath the mud, its fingers worn to the bone by its attempts to escape. It had grabbed her as she passed, and its fist grew ever-tighter the harder she tried to get away. If it couldn't escape, it wouldn't let her either. The imagery was such that she struggled all the more, and finally felt a burning sensation rip up her hind leg, just as a voice cut into her panic.

Wide, blue eyes were turned on the stranger. In the moment, she did not recognize him at all, but any wolf was better than being alone with the mud and monsters. "Help," she commanded, turning her body and trying to paddle toward him. A whine of pain escaped her as the motion jarred her still-throbbing apendage, but it was a moot point either way. She couldn't move toward him any more than she could remove herself from the mire.