Blacktail Deer Plateau it is not love that brings her to paris

for @Evergreen

hey! quellcrist calls after the pallid male she's been trailing after for ...well ever. his legs are much longer than her's and she has to hurry along to keep up with. he's a quiet sort ...or maybe he just didn't want to deal with her. she could see the reluctance each time he comes back to where he stashed her away, always out of sight of large predators that might snatch her up. a protective instinct he isn't fond of? or because he fears winterbane's wrath? the second, she thinks. she's tired of wandering. she's young and she craves a stability in her life that she'd taken advantage of previously. she's proud and doesn't want to admit she's tired but her legs ache and each hurried step after him leaves her feeling more drained than the last.

the pallid male glimpses back and down at her over his shoulder. stop. she musters her best demand voice — it was a good thing she was so bossy and well practiced at it — because the male's steps cease. her tail wags a few times, pleased that her temporary caretaker heeded her command, but she scowls up at him as he turns around to face her. "we've lost his trail," and while young quell understood a while ago they were chasing a ghost. despite his promises wintersbane was not returning. his trail was long gone and their wandering was aimless ...plus she'd heard her caretaker complain about it when he thought she was asleep. "we'll camp here. it's close to the stream, you can find your way to and from easily enough. find a secluded place to hide. i'll be back." there was a curtness to his tone that quellcrist doesn't like.

but for all her bossiness and supposed fearlessness she relies on him. as company. for food. to keep her safe. thus, she does as she's asked, finding a nice hollowed out log that looks like adequate shelter and falls asleep.

when she wakes the sun's position has shifted to late afternoon. there is no food waiting for her, no signs that her pallid caretaker had ever returned. hey! she didn't even know his name. she calls loudly out to the vast and horribly empty plateau again, feeling her heart beat faster in her chest. she wants to surge deeper into the territory to look for him but she can't bring herself to go too far from the safety of the hollowed log even with the feeling that he's finally dumped her off.

she hears a rustling in the bushes nearby and scampers back to her hollowed log, scooting into it's safety hoping that any large predators that come this way mistake her for a shadow and nothing more.

hope this is okay, otherwise i can delete <3

He hasn't spent as much time exploring outside of Kaistleoki's borders as he'd like, so he heads out early today. It's a beautiful morning, and for once he doesn't feel like death itself. He only hopes it lasts. He makes his way deep into the neighboring Plateau, trying to shake away memories of his encounter here with Evergreen (he's still been avoiding the Count) and thinking it would make a beautiful home. Part of him wonders why his companion had chosen the river rather than this place.
Suddenly, his thoughts are interrupted by a voice — an unexpectedly young voice. He freezes, blinking. The young Corten has almost zero experience with children; he's pretty sure he at least knows what they sound like, but... what the hell is a kid doing out here? Maybe it's not alone, he thinks, hoping this is the case even as his paws turn him toward the sound. A beat later, he picks up the scent too, and he emerges onto the scene just in time to watch the dark child retreat into a hollowed log. And she looks pretty alone to him. Ummm, He says as he halts, trying to figure out what the appropriate thing to say in this situation is. When he speaks again, he's careful to speak slowly and clearly, hoping the child will understand him without difficulty. Hey — are you okay?

it's perfectly fine! ♥

the voice that calls out to her as she huddles in her hidey-hole is not one that quellcrist is familiar with. out of instinct to appear threatening ( as if a three month old could actually manage to pull that off, ha ) she bares her teeth and her shoulders tense as she backs to the middle of the log. he doesn't look like her pallid companion ( ex-companion now ) either ...and to be frank, she's quite tired of trusting strangers. youth makes her naive but the feeling of abandonment she feels hardens her, turning porcelain resolve into ivory.

she's alone now, she suspects. she's gotta be brave. she's gotta be fierce. she's gotta be smart.

i'm fine. she lies, trying to hide the tremble of her voice by making the tone she uses curt. snappy. go away. bossy. bossy's good, quellcrist tells herself. maybe if she's bossy she can mask the fear she feels as primal knowledge tells her that without a proper adult to care for her she will not survive long out here on her own. still, whatever trust she used to have has been broken by those she trusted to care for her and she wasn't about to fall for that old 'you're safe. i won't hurt you/leave you' spiel again.