Phoenix Maplewood akudama

[shifty eyes] if you're interested! also open to @Callan if interested!!

Strong winds blew black clouds across the Wilds, and with those winds followed Indra and her companion @Gun; not with any real purpose except the obvious need to survive.

By the time they came to the shelter of the redleaf forest the rain was pouring from the sky — pissing, as Gun kept pointing out. Both of them were hungry, cold, and wet; they often became polarized by a surly disposition or complete silence, and in this instance Indra was glum, while her companion over the past many weeks ranted (in their way) about anything and everything that grated on their nerves.

For a while that was the weather, sure. Indra could recall at least one tirade about no good, worthless, bullshit yellow-bellied Colt, and something about muskrats — but to be honest, all of Gun's storming had become white noise to Indra by this point.

At least they had the cover of the forest.

At least here they could dry off, gather their strength.

Maybe even eat.

Quit your bitchin' or we'll never catch anythin'! She called out to her companion, toneless; her face was contorted in its usual scowl and the front of her lip lifted to flash teeth which looked too-big in her gaunt face.

He was lost, well and truly. Even if he'd been able to tell where he was, the universe had decided that now was certainly not the time, the skies opening up to dump water down onto these lands. Callan was sure he would have drowned even if he'd been a fish.

Luckily enough, there was a cluster of trees the bluesteel was able to dart into to take some sort of cover, huffing as he shook out his coat. Fur stook up every which way after that, of course, but he was at least somewhat better off than before. He wasn't being soaked through to the bone, at the very least.

Ears pricked at the sound of a voice, not at all far from him by the sounds of it, rooting him to the spot. Should he run? Should he stay right here, in this exact spot? Or should he press forward and discover who it was in this forest with him? Hackles prickled as indecisiveness frayed his nerves, wore at his mind as a dog would scratch at a door.

Don' be 'n idiot. Go 'n find out where you are. Another huff, this time at himself, mentally kicking his brain into gear. His paws felt weighed down with lead as he forced himself to walk in the direction of the voice, ears slicked back against his skull as he went to discover who else was hiding out from the storm in the forest with him.

Gun was at a distance despite the noise, and Indra was already so separated from her that the flash of teeth would be met only with the retreating silhouette of the other woman's bulbous figure; but Indra didn't care. She was on the hunt for something to eat and doing that without the repercussion of Gun's attitude was a bonus.

Her movements were composed of manic spurts, then static pauses, all while sniffing at the undergrowth, or tasting a leaf. She pulled out every trick she could think of to trace a route through the forest; there was ample sign of smaller, quicker things. Squirrels. Mice. At one point Indra came across nugget-sized bundles of fluff that smelled like bile, unaware they were owl pellets; but they didn't appear edible, only intensely bitter in smell. She moved on.