Firefly Glen stop thinking about the bullets from my mouth

@Ikari

She’d returned to the caldera in a daze and with one thing on her mind. The emergency she’d been saving her stash for had come sooner rather than later and she’d been nearly frantic to try and uncover it. It took only two bites before she was swallowing the thick mush of seeds from the pods. She knows it isn’t likely going to be enough to cover the black she feels and so she does not stay long at her den. Instead, she makes a beeline for the borders so that she can avoid the query from her pack mates.
 
By the time the poppy hits her she’s already on the move and allows herself to slow down. She does not look back to see if she’s been followed but continues onward where she’d traveled back from being with Kitsch. The path is hazy and confusing and she isn’t entirely sure she’s on the right track but the girl had been able to find a few poppies and if West can get in the general area, she’s certain she can find a few more. It is barely a dent in her mind that the opiates settle in. A little dizzy but her feet move one right after the other and there is hardly a sway to her walk as she moves with purpose.
 
With the weather warming up, the snow begins to melt, making the glen far muddier than it might otherwise be. Her feet sink into the ground until she’s able to break away to a firmer patch of ground with tired limbs and an exhausted mine. Her eyelids become heavy and she closes them, feeling as if she could fall asleep just standing there. She does not let herself, however, and her eyes flutter open and she begins her trek again through the thick foliage and out to a clearing where the sun shines bright. It forces her to squint against the glare but from the corner of her eye, she sees the sweet familiarity of what she’s been looking for this whole time.
 
Many of the poppies are immature but their seed pods are still intact, ready to release into the wild to fertilize the land in bounty. She goes through and picks the very best one and after ingesting several, she finally lowers to the west ground and lets her mind flow at ease.

The sun was warm, the land was quiet, everything was peaceful, and it seemed that nothing could possibly upset the perfect balance of the world. 

Then there came a rumbling, and a crashing, and a howl of glee. A moment of silence, and then, racing like a fiery comet, Ikari. 

He dashed from the trees, gold fur and even brighter golden eyes shining, tail following behind him like a flag. His tongue lolled out over teeth, and his breath came in ragged gasps. He was pushing himself as hard as he could, legs pumping, chest heaving. The wind rushed by his ears, and he howled again. 

The rock appeared seemingly out of nowhere. In an instant, Ikari had tripped, staggered, and crashed head-first into the earth. His legs still kicked, running on their own momentum, and the earth churned beneath his writhing paws. When the dust had settled and his body had finally stopped moving, Ikari raised his head. "Wow." he grunted, righting himself. He licked his nose and came away with the taste of blood. The world spun for a moment, then stilled. Ikari stood and turned to face the rock. He bared his teeth and rammed it hard with his broad head, yowling and falling back when he made impact. 

"Good job." he said, speaking to the rock, "You tripped me up this time. It won't happen again." He turned and limped off, still dizzy, nose bleeding, and now with a massive headache. 

His paws found water, and he fell into a narrow stream, scraping himself on yet another rock. Tiny fish fled in every direction, and Ikari snapped his teeth at them. "Yeah. Fuck you, fish." he growled, "You too, stupid rock," he rammed his head into the latest geological offender, swore again, and sat down. A moment later he flopped to his side, letting the cold water rush over his head. A few clouds scooted above him, and he rolled over onto his back, extending his paws as though to touch them. 

There came a rustling from the stream bank, and he flipped over immediately, covering his lower half with his tail. A small rabbit emerged from the grass, and he snarled at it. "Screw off, ya dumb rabbit," he growled, and the rabbit took no chances, immediately spinning around and fleeing. Ikari lay back down and stared at the sky. He was all at once very much aware of himself, what he had, and what he most certainly did not have. He stood, shook water from his fur, and exited the stream, resuming his ramble through, well, wherever the hell he'd found himself this time. 

Existential crises were for people who thought about things. Ikari thought that not thinking was the best way to go, and, before he could question his own thoughts, ceased to think. 

Silence pervaded for a moment more. The clouds drifted. The wind rustled. Far below them, Ikari tripped on another rock, and the swearing began anew.

At a much slower and calmer pace, Ikari resumed his wandering. It hadn't been long when the beast of a wolf discovered that an unfamiliar scent drifted his way, and he spotted it's owner not long after.  "Oi, lady!" 

There isn’t a thing in the world that can ruin the new wave of euphoria for. It has been weeks since she’d felt the rush through her body and for the first time since, feels a calm and quiet she’s been needing. Her mind has the ability to wander without a fear and she closes her eyes and lowers her head to the ground. The cold, wet mud soaks into her fur but the sun warms her back for a contrast that’s amplified by the opium in her system.
 
Oi, lady!
 
At first, West doesn’t do anything. She isn’t even entirely sure the sound is real but slowly the scent of muck and blood fill her nose and she slowly opens her eyes. She does not see the wolf at first, forcing her head up to find the figure standing off in the distance. West stares for several seconds before she parts her jaws and smacks her lips together to realize just how dry her mouth is. Her rough tongue moves uncomfortably in her mouth but she tries to ignore it and focus on her new company.
 
“There’s no need to go around shouting for no reason,” she says in a low scratchy and tired voice.

Ikari trots his way over to the woman, shaking his head a few times and widening his jaws in a yawn. Her words reach his ears and he huffs, one white brow raising. "And why is that?" He seemingly doesn't care for her next answer, merely continuing to speak.

"The hell are you even doin' here anyway? Sittin' here all by yourself doesn't look exactly, uh, fun." He plops his rump down on the ground beside her once he gets closer, his body loose and casual, although his eyes don't ever glance away from her.

Its not like he's going to trust some random ass woman he finds in like, the middle of nowhere. He turns his muzzle towards her wearily.

Disclaimer: the misgendering is 100% intentional and not from me. Decided to keep the misgendering only in thoughts and dialogue. <3 ALSO sorry for the short post. Will do better next time.

The other wolf is bold enough to approach and sit nearby and West stares hard at himfor a long moment. His features are wider and masculine and the way he carries himself is clunky and he’s rather brazen to approach an unknown wolf. When he gets too close, West flashes her teeth in warning and shifts back a few steps to put some space between them.
 
“Why are you so fucking nosy?” she decides, brows knitting together between her eyes.

Ikari huffs and flicks his ears back when she shows her teeth and moves backwards away from him. "Damn, someones a little feisty." His jaws part in another yawn and he shakes his head a couple times before answering, tone somewhat annoyed. "Is it bad to be a little curious now and then?" His voice is low, rough, and this woman is slowly starting to piss him off.

The wolf gets a little irritated with her actions and West can help but roll her eyes. She isn’t sure what’s going through the other’s mind to approach a slumbering wolf and then be the one to get frustrated. Her stomach churns as all that she has ingested begins to really take effect and she closes her eyes again to find some sort of neutral ground. “You wake up a sleeping wolf,” she begins, slowly reopening her eyes to still see the irritated look on her face, “and you expect me to be all welcoming with open arms?”

Ikari's head tilts slightly to the left as he listens to her speak, eyes trained on her face as she closes and then reopens her eyes. "Oh, yes, if you would that'd be great," Ikari says sarcastically. A shake of his head. "Others tend to be a lot, hmm, nicer when greeted by someone who might just wanna make some friends." He climbs to his paws, shaking out his coat and ridding himself of whatever clung to him from his fall earlier. Not one of his proudest moments, but it happened nonetheless. "But," he begins with a snort, "I was just wonderin' why you were out here all by yourself, doin' whatever the hell it is you're doin'. Sleepin' or some shit, I don't even know, really." He pauses before continuing. "Although if you'd like me to leave, I'll be on my way."

“Does anything go through that thick skull of yours?” she asks while he gets sarcastic with her but he picks himself up and shakes out his fur. At first, she thinks he may leave, but he only speaks again to announce his curiosity, followed by questioning her desire for him to leave. West stares at him blankly for a long moment, questioning whether or not he’d been dropped on his head too many times as a child or if the density is just natural. Instead of waiting for him to leave, West carefully stands so that she does not lose her balance in her elevated state and drops her head to snack a few poppies out of the ground to take back with her. With several still in her jaw, she pivots around and (nearly stumbling) begins to leave.

He ignores her comment although the anger boiling in the pit of his stomach cannot be ignored. Ikari takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opens them again the woman is standing as though ready to leave. Her head is lowered to the ground to grab something, and Ikari tilts his head. "Oi, wait! What the hell is that?" He thrusts his muzzle towards the objects in her mouth, walking after her as she starts to leave.

At this point, he's starting to ruin her high. Her mind, having to focus on the danger and annoyance at hand, struggles between sobering up and clinging to the lost feeling. She exaggerates her sigh and turns to him when he calls and chases after her, jaws clenching tight to the poppies in her mouth. Afraid to set them down, she debates with herself on what to do. She's far more inclined to just leave but she steels herself in place against her better judgment. She's yet to figure out what's wrong with the wolf that he just keeps pestering her and she wants nothing more to get rid of him. He's bigger than her and looks far stronger; West has never been much of a fighter and her wounds are still healing from the last encounter she had. In that moment, she misses her former life and knows one of her guardians wouldn't have let this guy pester her as much.

Carefully, West drops the poppies to the ground but keeps them between her feet. "These are poppies. They help with pain. They also make you feel really good," she tells him with a quirk of her eye brow as if to say, are you happy now?

Broad head still cocked, Ikari drags his gaze upwards. "They help with pain?" He stops for a moment, as though thinking. "Could they get rid a' this headache of mine?" A sheepish expression spreads across his face, and if he could he would have certainly raised a paw to scratch at the back of his neck in embarassment. "Ya see, I uh, I kinda had a fight with a rock earlier and-" he shakes his head. "Nevermind, the details aren't important." 

All West can do is stare for a moment as he asks about what it can do, asking about the pain in his head, then goes on further to explain why he has a headache. It doesn’t surprise her, however, as he’s done nothing be bumble his way through their conversation and causes her own grievance in the process. “It works better for wounds and arthritic pain,” she explains. Though, trying to ween off the puppies are often headache inducing but she doubts that is only a correlation. “But you could try,” she says with a point of her nose to the section she’d just been laying where several more are still intact. She lowers her head, picks up the few she’d claimed as her own, and continues about her way to leave.

"Oh," comes the quiet reply before his golden gaze flickers to the seeds below her. After commenting on the fact that he could try them despite that their use might not be for headaches, Ikari shrugs. Fuck it. He lowers his head and sniffs the objects before sliding a few into his jaws with his tongue. He scrunches up his nose after devouring the seeds, his eyes trained on the woman as she appears ready to leave. "You leavin' already? Will I be seein' you again or...?" He trails off, cocking his head to the right.

We'll have to have them run into one another again. ;)

It seems to shut the other up, if only for a few seconds, but he doesn’t seem satisfied for long. West stares at him as he inhales one of the seed pods and as curious as she was to see how it may react and if he'll take more, she doesn’t have enough interest. He does, however, catch her as she’s about to take another step away and with a look over her shoulder and mouth full of plants, she gives him one indifferent shrug and continues on her way back home.