Neverwinter Forest and undignified suffering is firing up again

ooo, was not expecting this thread to take such a turn but I'm here for it! XD as a sidenote: I'm going to play this off as Lótë not having realized anyone was living in the territory since Krauss has only two threads in NWF since the start of 2022 and his presence in the Forest has been kinda spotty. (That's just because she has a lot of threads in NWF and that would be a lot of editing to her threadlog lmao.) But please lmk if anything needs to be edited!

 

Lótë slowed after a time, letting Makan catch up as she realized he'd fallen behind -- feeling a stab of guilt. He was likely too tired to run in such a manner. The wind shifted at that moment, bringing with it an unfamiliar scent. That of another, growing steadily stronger. 

Then she saw him -- a distorted silhouette of Makan, yet not. He was dark and had brilliant blue eyes of a similar hue but the shadow racing towards her bore the face of a stranger. Lótë's hackles rose, lip peeling back in a panicked snarl but the pursuer was larger than she and likely stronger. The cloudberry didn't wait for the man to catch up with her, nor did she brace to meet him in violence. 

Instead the dove burst into flight, wheeling and taking off with a cry of warning for Makan who was surely not far from them -- intending to circle back around if she could not flee from the stranger. If she could not lead the attacker away, perhaps the two of them would stand a better chance against him.  

But this was all betting on the hope that Makan would not flee in fear.