Snowforest Taiga ☁ έχω χαθεί ☁

@Dagmar hope this is okay <3

She did not count the days she walked.

Eyes of sleepy violet had been jolted into conciousness, flitting like the startled wings of a butterfly back and forth across the horizon; without a man to guard her back, Daivya felt the wind creep icy tendrils up her spine - exposure. Isolation was a curse, and to the lost Meladi, it might be the cause of her downfall. Pangs of ravenous hunger had ripped through her stomach suns before, but she was barely adept at catching prey, relying solely on the scraps of abandoned carcasses along the trail, anything she could scavange.

She was a medic, a herbalist, not a hunter. That was not a woman's purpose.

Fog sat in a hazy cloak over the taiga, and the chocolate sprite could barely tell left from right - she longed again for the safety of the Odolf claim: Lilah's benevolent smile, Dawson's fathomless gaze, Iliksis' dangerous stare, the alluring charm of Grayson's words and the friendships that had bloomed in her delicate hands. It was a prodigious loss, settling like a leaden stone in the traveller's chest. Her throat felt tight, scratchy, and she savoured the rain that would tip from the heavens, soaking her dusty pelt and soothing the burn in her dry muzzle; she had almost forgotten how terrible it was to be alone. She would never forget again.

Ignoring the pain in her snow-tipped ankles, Daivya moved onward. She dared not look back, for with the solitude came a paralysing fear of being observed like a fly under a glass; she must not stop moving, lest she desired to fall prey to nature itself. Her gods could not protect her here - she must simply trust their guidance, continue to withstand the elements and push through the mountainous regions until they cast help in her direction. The herbalist trusted them. It was the only thing she could do.

Until, of course, the sleepless nights of endless struggling brought her crumpling to the ground, eyes drooping and breaths slithering into the frigid air. So tired. If death was to come, would it come now?

She waited.

in a sense, death did come. 

he had been stalking her for some time, waiting for something to happen. for her to mess up, to fall down to - oh she did. her body hit the ground with a dull thud. the beast was in the foliage at the thickest part and to his limited knowledge, he had been invisible to her. she did not turn. her feet did not race forward in fear and therefore he did not give chase. but he did stalk her like the filthy predator he was. and she, the sweetly smelling prey. saliva hit the ground as he closed the distance, dripping from his jaws in a fresh ooze. 

it was her own mistake, really. to be in the open. to be vulnerable. to have no safety of a pack at her back. it was why he had slunk back to the Taiga; no other packs were around. nobody to interrupt what he wanted to do. no good-doers ready to pounce on him... his thoughts were sane for a bit before reverting back to childish antics. and really, it was his fault. he chose to protect himself. he did not face the past. he could not. at least, not right now. so all he could do was move forward.

the grey beast walked closer, watching her frame rise and fall. in his jaws was a squirrel he had plucked from the base of a tree. even he didn't know why he chose to do this; a wolf like her was enough to put some bulk back into his sunken frame. she was easily dead if he didn't do anything. but he would jerk his muzzle up, throwing the corpse at her face. so far, these wilds hadn't given him much. if he could give her a bit of food now, she could tell him where he was. then he'd eat her.

Naivety was, at times, a curse.

Nothing in life so far had prepared her for encounters with men outside of her own social bubble, those high-class men with their rules and their customs, so unlike the untamed creatures of the wilderness; when the thump of a rabbit's corpse shuddered to the ground, her only thoughts were of thanks. Cocoa eyelids fluttered open, lips parting to breathe in the warm, tender scents, before her sleepy gaze trailed to her saviour, the one who presented her now with another chance at survival.

Though her first attempt to speak provided her only with a croak, Daivya seized the moment to observe which merciful being had gifted her life in his palms, and came upon a face unlike any she'd ever witnessed before - the only resemblence she could attempt to place would be upon the features of Iliksis, the secretive serpent, who'd slithered away in a time of need. Whatever her senses would whisper to her, the gods upon her shoulders, this man had saved her life. Although it was a man's very duty to care for the more delicate women, she would never have anticipated being in life-debt to one she had not once spoken to in her life. Not one of Grayson's troupe, but a traveller, one beyond the lands she'd witnessed. Here he stood before her, like a god among the deceased life of the taiga, and despite his piercing gaze she could only be grateful. She swallowed half the meal almost greedily, feeling the rejuvenation of her senses, but, in accordance to appropriate manners, she politely let the other half sit, so that unless the stranger spoke otherwise, it was his to consume.

"T-Thank you, kind sir," she whispered, lilac eyes drifting back up toward the brute. "σου είμαι υπόχρεος - I am... in your d-debt."