Honeyed Pasture and the gulls gave me my singing voice

timelines are a lie and I will just vaguely slide this in before this thread. ty for the tag! making a minor assumption about Yunxu’s movements, but lmk if you want anything changed :>

what’s the opposite of bad encounters—good ones, or none at all? tadashi will take none over terror, but lonesomeness is a heavy burden to bear. and yet, with weather like this, is he surprised? if he finds minori here, anywhere, he will have to ask what drew her to such a dreary land.

the torrent slows his trek; discouragement rumbles on the horizon. yet he’s made it this far, and who would he be to give in? she is here. surely as the rain falls.

when he spies a dark head dipped in the grass his heart dances—but the seafoam coat in tow evaporates the sentiment just as swiftly. it is not the first time he’s mistaken a dark stranger for his sister and, at this rate, it will not be the last.

still, tadashi squints at the way this one walks. it is not a natural gait, as though stiffness claws at each step, the pulsing tug of rapids of pain. the wolf has not succumbed. where is his army?

tail swaying gently across the waterlogged undergrowth, tadashi announces his presence with a small chuff. “hello, stranger!” by his own standards his voice is tempered, an empathetic cheer for an exhausted soldier. “what happened here?” he hasn’t the slightest thought that his help might be neither expected nor welcome—or even, without ample supply, possible at all.