Firefly Ravine hambone king

Anyone is welcome (and encouraged) to join! Please let @Koume post first.

They start off relatively slow from the borders of Drageda. He isn't entirely sure where he is going but he moves somewhere relatively familiar. His exploration has been limited to the coast and a little to the north but all this is new. In addition to taking Lily elsewhere, he focuses on his surroundings so he doesn't get lost but he's comfortable enough in his directional sense that he doesn't worry too much. When he has to focus on the girl, he does. Occasionally he'll give her a bigger nudge, sometimes he'll carry her a short distance (as awkward as carrying a four month old puppy is) and eventually they come to a stop to rest near a ravine. It's the first fresh water source and the brute doesn't know the history of the pack that once led here and their influence on Drageda so he traipses with little fear or anxiety. 


He nudges the girl to the water, encouraging her to drink, before he gives her a quick, "I'll be right back with something to eat." 

It isn't in his directions but he cannot complete all he needs and in the time he should if he has to wait around for her. If a little food in her stomach will speed things along, he'll take the risk but he doubts he'd be considered disobedient. 

Arlo returns with a scrawny hare between his jaws, dropping it nearby where he'd left the girl, and nudges it closer. "Can you eat solid meat yet?" he asks, his cheeks a little red at his lack of knowledge but hopefully the girl can give him some parental guidance.

[table width=80%][tr][td]With her lips nearly sealed did she follow the young man named Arlo, looking back every now and then to see if Anatha was there. It was no secret that it was very likely the two would never meet again and still did her childlike fantasy say that their destinies were intertwined. She had not been able to say goodbye or even thank the red wolf for her efforts, making her feel guilty for the first time in her life. She knew it was not like her to think about these things, but something about Anatha had sparked something within her and she'd rather not let it go. Still, Arlo seemed like a reasonable okay caretaker for now. He helped her along - he looked out for the both of them and, as Heda had said, was taking her somewhere safe. Perhaps Heda had just not thought much of her; that she was too little for her to take Azura under her wing. Koume did not consider that too many young souls were the problem, given that such problems did not exist within her world.

They stopped near a water source which was perfect timing. She had grown rather thirsty since the beginning of this whole ordeal and definitely wished to quench her thirst for a moment. At the mention of food did her tummy growl and her head went straight back to a memory of Potema and how she had suckled on her teats for free meals whenever she wanted. The real world didn't work that way. She nodded at Arlo, muzzle dipped to the water as she drank.

When he returned and asked a question she knew the answer of, she nodded again - running her tongue over her teeth. T-Thank you, Arlo. She nosed the hare but dug in fairly quickly given her immense hunger. She licked her muzzle after, feeling quite curious now that she had regained some strength. Where are we going?[/tr][/td][/table]

As the girl begins to eat, he settles on the ground nearby and tries to keep his attention anywhere but in her direction. The distance between them and Drageda isn’t great enough for him to let her go and no one they’ve come across has been in the market for a child. They’ll press on after a brief moment of rest to further lead Lily away from them.
 
The question does not surprise him but he isn’t prepared for a decent answer. He peers back in her direction to see most of the rabbit gone and he can’t tell her to eat more instead of worry about it, so he shifts and angles his attention toward her.
 
“I’m taking you somewhere safe,” he decides to tell her with a roll of his shoulder. “We’ll rest for a little bit, but we’ll need to further before it gets dark.”

[table width=80%][tr][td]Lily, her mask, would've felt bad about this all - feeling that she had forced Arlo into this. But Koume? She just wanted to get home, and he was her ticket to safety and security. Surely she would reward him in the end or whenever she was grown, but for now he was more a rock-hard guardian that was close to being her possession were it not for his allegiance and lack of real desire to care for her - or so it seemed.

She lied down near him, face facing the water so she could look at her own mismatched eyes with a frown on her face. She feared to admit it, but she even missed the tangles of the woods - the touch of her siblings' coats and the underground tunnels that had proved to be a real maze at first. She wondered when she could return to them - how much more she had to play this game to get what she desired. O-okay... She said softly, closing her eyes to rest as his plan had suggested.[/tr][/td][/table]

The girl shifted to lie down near him and he looks in her direction and watches her for a long moment. He can’t deny he’s a little curious about what’s going through her mind. She hasn’t run off away from him—not that he’d stop her—and she sticks close. She trusts him enough tag along but he wonders how much energy she has to offer much than she has already. As he is able to let himself relax, he heaves a long sigh and relaxes in the afternoon sun.
 
A little while later, he urges the girl up and over the shortest part of the ravine to continue on.