Redsand Canyon down and out over the mount

set immediately after this thread; between Sleepy Fox Hollow and Redsand Canyon, morning of 7/16

The encounter left Finley restless. Unease tugged at her like a thorny undergrowth. “Worse,” she’d unthinkingly invited @Colin along on the way out, and had no better grasp on her own intentions with the gesture than the stranger’s with Donovan.

Frankly the whole ordeal left her head spinning, and it was much too early for such nonsense. As she traversed back over the mountains, towards the ever-scorching canyons the Saints were now obliged to call home, Finley’s gait was stiff with unspoken tension. If Colin had left in the silence she’d left, she would be neither surprised nor judgmental. But on the off chance he hadn’t, Finley was curious about his lingering presence; Nemisis had left without much fanfare, skulking off to whatever her next encounter might be, and it left Finley with a chance for interaction outside leadership’s shadow.

“What brought you here?” she asked, with little pause preceding it, tone sharp with a curiosity reaching further past the morning. Donovan gave him a new home. But why here? Why him?

Still, the nigh-demanding sound of her words surprised even Finley; Colin was an equal, and she ought to have no expectation of reply—if he was even around at all. Only then did she slow, turning back to gauge how he’d handled himself since the Hollow. Finley’s attention had been divided there, between the rivaling leaders, but her surface-level inquisitiveness remained. Had he too been ready to fight, despite his self-professed peacekeeping?