Blackfeather Woods I just needed a little off the top.

Title is from Aesop Rock's song, "Racing Stripes".

Their conversation had been quick, and the group was swift to react to the plan. They would depart—with the Redhawk in the lead, followed by Maegi, and thankfully the strength of Kalganov following suit—and through it all, Mou kept himself at the back of the pack. He followed until the caves yawned in to freedom, feeling the stale air brighten with the chill of October, but he did not follow beyond that. They were in a panic; he, oddly level-headed, watched as the weighted form of Kalganov gave chase to the others, and soon he was alone among the shadows.

Then, soundlessly and without much pause, Mou turned back.

His retreat took him back along the winding corridors of the caves, through the soggy mire, and then to Maegi's garden. He paused and looked across the segment she had been standing in when he'd found her—work unfinished—and he could still smell her, a faint aroma upon the exposed soil. He took a breath, and he moved on.

The shouting of a familiar voice, distant and illegible, told Mou to pull himself along a different path. He plunged through the dark forest in the hopes that he'd encounter someone from the raiding party (unaware it was merely a loud-mouthed cur and his noble ally, and equally unaware that they had split up). His reaching steps devoured the landscape, and Mou was struck by how familiar these paths had become—and how fit his body was. Of course he would be running towards danger, and towards death, when finally at peak condition.

A bend in the treeline swept his path off-kilter a few degrees, and he lunged awkwardly to compensate. The forest was silent save for his abrupt foot-falls as his body nimbly avoided a fall; then, as he settled and took a breath, he smelled something strange—so much like the captive girl, but different. The scent was that of @Tegan Blackthorn, but to Mou it was the stench of an early death. He was reminded fleetingly of the bear, the darkness, the sea—so many ends that he had avoided. And here he was, standing still and waiting for that same misfortune to find him.

And all he thought of after that was, Maegi.