Arrow Lake & i wonder (not for the first time) what happened to your wings

Her brows lifted and creased at his ragged breathing, which she hadn’t taken notice of in the first moments he’d caught up with her. Listening to him, the off-kilter huff with which he spoke... ”Oh, I did say I wanted a hike, didn’t I?” There was concern in her gaze, no pity, as she ventured back to him; and maybe a little guilt for her own recklessness with the nudge to his chin she gave. ”Well, we should truly hike, then. Er... at least we know to find another way, now, yes?”

Ears splayed back, she followed his glance towards the clifface, the fur along her lower spine fluffing out in discontent towards it. ”It may be, but there should be another path somewhere. There is always is.” Stepping closer, she nuzzled into the broad of his heaving chest, fleeting, a promise to be more considerate — and a beckoning for him to follow. 

And then, after keeping step with him some ways, Aure was prancing away once more, yet at a much more leisurely pace than before. ”I could always make Mahler look at that throat of yours, you know?” A trill back towards Verx, since her eyes were held captive in their own search. ”Surely he knows more of wounds than I do. And perhaps he could give you something to, ah, alleviate whatever pains come to you.”

Sparing a keen-eyed glance for Verx, her gaze was brazen, contemplative, as it roamed down his neck. ”Mahler will certainly know more than I. You will be in much better paws, that way.” Eyes went listless, considering, before she rose from the crag she lounged against and continued her search. Thin ears remained furled back to listen to anything he had to reply with; but she soon halted in place, the tip of her tail quivering as she took in the sight before her.

It was a fissure in the crags, one of which was wide enough for two wolves to muscle through at a time. But there was so telling where it would lead... maybe... if he could rise over it? Aure looked back the way they came, for surely the passageway was too narrow for the warrior she’d wrangled along with her. ”If I go through here, there might be a path on ze other side.” Perhaps, if he could climb this gaggle of boulders, the ones that clopped above this cave... and if they headed in the same direction...? She might be losing her head, after all, but she’d sworn she’d tasted spring within this fissure.