And You Were Beautiful and Vulnerable

tags for reference since they're in the tundra @Reiko @Haruki

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The land was barren, all save for the dead patches of grass or rare squat bush. Sand and dirt stretched for miles with no change in color aside from the brazen blue sky and beating sun that seemed content beating the life out of whatever poor creatures remained. Well, almost no change...along one of the sandy dunes laid a white dot, the slim figure of a girl who appeared to be resting easily despite her surroundings. Her blissful peace would be short-lived though as the sun bore down on her.

For one used to the cold breeze of the mountains or heavy shade of a forest, the desert was the last place she belonged. Hotaru could feel how wrong her surroundings were before she stirred. What was once a pure white, well-kept pelt was now dirtied by the sand and dirt that must have blown in the breeze. Something that suggested her time here had not been short along with the burning of her side. The earth beneath her was soft and silky, its surface as warm as the air around her, though it wasn't until her eyes flickered open that the comfort slowly lifted only to be replaced by a growing dread. The light was harsh in comparison and the sun's light seemed to illuminate the golden hills around her.

Raising her head to take in her surroundings, Hotaru opened her mouth to speak only to find her voice crack with dry air. How long had she been here? What exactly...was here? She had never seen a desert before, though she knew instantly that she better find a way out before it was too late.

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When it came to the desert, Lakhos was in his element. He blended in pretty well, though here the darker shades of his wolfish pelage stood out like sore thumbs. Didn't help at all that he started blowing out his coat in just the first few hours of being there either; there had been a weird disconnect between brain and body that had not occurred to him until he had stopped to scratch an itch and flung fur with it.

Only then did he realize that the place he had been before had been a frozen hellscape, deep in the heart of winter. The climate here betrayed that greatly, and in the present, had made him look like a little gaunt, mangy thing skirting and scuttling along the tops of heavy dunes.

Effortlessly, he crested another dune panting, and stopped to survey his surroundings. The sands stretched on for what seemed like forever, not that he found it too bothersome. He had no real desire in finding the edge of the badlands, let alone seeing how far he had to go to find the end of the desert. Assuming it did end, anyway.

If it didn't? That'd be dope.

As his gaze panned around, he spotted a flash of white off in the distance. Lakhos didn't bother to ascertain what or who it was, but assumed it had to be that dude from before. Ol' Lost, Crazy, & Confused—he didn't remember if the wolf had given him a name. Nor did he loosen himself from where he stood in shifting sands to investigate either.

No, the coywolf decided to observe.

For now.
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Numb legs struggled to push her to her paws. Between the sleep and slick surface, she found her footing more than unstable in comparison to the hard rock she grew up with. For now, her company escaped her gaze as she attempted to climb to the top of the dune.

Surely the tops of the hills would give some sort of information to go off of to get out of here, or at least find some water. Though just as she was nearing its peak, the sand beneath her gave way. Hotaru slipped, her paws flailing for a grip only to find more of the soft grain that was currently carrying her tumbling form to the bottom of the dune.

Her body collapsed in a plume of dust and sand as a soft “Oof—” escaped her. Fortunately, the tumble failed to cause any true harm aside from the shock. It was one plus to the ground being so...soft. Still, it seemed wrong...was it possible...was she dreaming? It would be one reasonable explanation for the foreign world she now found herself in, or how she was separated from her family, though if waking up was her goal, what else could she do if tumbling down a hill did not rouse her?

She sighed, sitting up again to shake the new layers of sand from her fur.  Perhaps she should call? Haruki was never far from her side, so surely his absence would further her theory. She wouldn't have to think twice, as a simple croon escaping her as she tilted her head back. Now all she had to do was wait...

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And he had no more laid eyes on them before they went tumbling along the sand—clearly inexperienced. He chuckled to himself, the distance perhaps far too great for the wolf to hear; Lakhos was not moved by the urge to investigate whether or not they were all right. They were still moving and by that alone negated the purpose.

It was also then that he realized that they weren’t the wolf he had seen before. No… the features were all wrong. Too narrow, too young, too feminine. Another one then, though that really shouldn’t have surprised him. Sure, maybe the shift from winter hellscape to sandy paradise may have been weird, but truth be told he didn’t ever think he would be anywhere that wasn’t somewhat populated.

They were social creatures, after all.

Watching her as she further continued to straighten herself up, he was in turn surprised when she sent out a little lonely croon. Searching for someone… or maybe calling for backup. Had he been spotted? His brow knit together with concern for a moment and once again, the coywolf scanned his surroundings for something to shift along the sands, some indication that they weren’t alone.

At the first sign that someone was in fact there, he had every intention of fleeing the scene. To hell with that noise, he was gonna try and soak up the sand and solitude as long as he could. There were too many lizards left to eat and he really didn’t wanna have to try and fight over them. Sharing was caring and all but no one had particularly been sharing or caring with him.
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 It was the song of another that drove him to the dunes. It was not a good place that he had been driven, but Sam didn't know where to go. He had tried one direction based on nothing but the vague interaction of Coyote, and nothing good had come of it. He had found something inhospitable and terrible as he ventured farther in a direction he did not know. So, he'd tried to turn at a ninety degree angle. That had turned into backwards as heat exhaustion started to pick at him throughout the day.
 Sam. Samuel? He answered the call with one of his own, lonely and confused. I am here. He said, hazarding to break out into a run toward her gentle note and find her. The sand did not mix well with his feet. He was designed for snow, not these strange, hot places. This must have been some kind of oblivion after death. Or perhaps he had only hit his head and did not remember where he was supposed to be. Whatever the case, he ran until he found her, dazzling and white upon the sands.
 His ears perked upon seeing her, and excitement followed. Quickly he tried to close the distance, clearly pleased to see her though he had no idea who she was and sweat was draining the moisture from his feet. As though she was a long-lost sister, he grinned.

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The princess waited and waited as her call faded, a moment of panic that perhaps it had fallen on deaf ears, though just as she thought her voice had gone unheard another called out. Her heart lept, a glimmer of hope as her head shot up for the one who answered, though a part of her could feel the disappointment sink in knowing that the call she heard did not belong to her family. The sounds of shifting sand drew her focus first as a male appeared, a grin plastered on his maw almost as if she knew him...but, as far as she could recall Hotaru had never met him.

Instinctively, she dipped her head, cautious as she hesitated a step back. “Ah...greetings...” Her eyes shifted, careful to never leave him long, though she allowed them to drift long enough to check for anyone else who might come. Well this is awkward... “Have you seen anyone like me? I think I'm...lost. I was traveling with my mother and brother— but we've never been somewhere like this before.”

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Sure as shit, he didn’t have to wait long for another figure to appear along the dunes. This time, it was the wolf that he had seen before that came to the aid of the other unfamiliar one and against his better judgment, Lakhos decided to settle down along the top of the dune he was on to watch them.

He couldn’t hear the words spoken clearly, but it didn’t matter. Days of wandering alone had been nice and all, scooping up and sucking down lizard tails, but he hadn’t really seen another soul. Now there were two wolves that didn’t fit the desert bill just roaming around.

And of course, there was the matter of how he had come to be, too.

Lakhos didn’t really want to think about that, though the dusty path he had been trekking had certainly raised the question a few times. This place had its creature comforts, the things that he was very much used to, but in the end it wasn’t quite anywhere he was familiar with. The coywolf wasn’t inclined to unravel the growing mystery, so he’d do the next best thing on a whim.

These two were a good distraction.
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 She spoke, and he was rather dumbstruck. He had stepped closer only to find strange, light purple eyes looking back at him. A distance away, the corner of his eye spotted movement in the dunes, but his attention could not be taken from her. She was absolutely reverential, a creature of pale grace he could never have hoped to find in the world of the living. It became very obvious: she was an angel.
 “You're lost?” he questioned, confused and strangely excited at the possibility of helping an angel find her way home. This must be purgatory. She had fallen from heaven, and he had more or less died. “I've never seen anyone like you,” he breathed dreamily, awkwardly. “I'm lost too. I've been looking for something less, uh, sandy, for days. I dunno where we are,” he explained unhelpfully. Sam then proceeded to stare blankly into the distance, frowning vaguely and wondering what they should do. He'd come in the opposite direction as she, the angel.
 Just then, his vision focused on the little dot in the dunes. His eyes narrowed, but he didn't recognize the thing. Sam looked back at the angel sheepishly, grinning like he'd seen something embarrassing.

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There was something about the way he stared that made her skin itch. It wasn't that his gaze was unkind, no in fact it was quite the opposite, almost as if it was one born from desire. Perhaps it was in that nature that made her want to flee... though admittedly, she would likely not get far and her legs felt far too weak to run off into the unknown. If she were to avoid worsening her situation, then she had no choice but to bear through this and hope she might find a lead to her family.

However, as quick as her hopes had risen, they were just as fast to come plummeting down. He had seen no one like her, which crossed off the possibility of getting closer to her brother or her mother. A frown tugged at her lips as she took another step back from his approach, still not sure enough of his motives to stand so near. “You did not come here either? There must be some way out...surely there is more to this land than sand.” Even though she believed her words to be true, his own experience over days did not bring good tidings.

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Of course, while a good distraction, Lakhos was easily bored with them too.

There was really only so many confused expressions that could be crammed into a span of time that even he could take, and they really made a pair. His hearing strained, but he couldn’t figure out what on earth they were saying. Couldn’t have been too hard of a guess either—the usual oh geeze how’d you end up here because I don’t remember.

But just then, he realized that one of them was looking at him.

That one guy, the one he had met before.

Shit, he thought, shit, shit, shit.

He was certain he had been spotted, and flattened himself more to the ground. His toes dipped into the warm sands as though that would help him conceal himself, but his mind was already going nine thousand miles an hour trying to figure out an escape route. Especially if more interest was placed on him.

sorry for the gross ass wait

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Hoping to wrap his threads quickly so my posts will be short!

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 “I hope you're right,” Sam added, making a face as he continued to look out across the sands. The shape he had seen before moved again, and this time Sam was able to somewhat focus his vision on it. It looked like a coyote, maybe.
 “Do you know that uh.. person?” He asked absently, looking back at her and gesturing out to the thin little wolf. He couldn't tell it was the same as the one he had met before, though the behaviour should have been a giveaway.

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The other seemed to squint looking past her to something in the distance. It wasn't until he mentioned someone else that she too turned to look, eyes squinting against the harsh desert sun to scan the dunes. He wasn't visible at first, his pelt blending with the sand and rock, but eventually, she would pick out the darker parts of his pelt amongst the scenery. “Er— N-no I don't know them. Almost all the wolves I know look like me.” Maybe that was because, you know, she didn't belong here, yet whatever gods were up there seemed to like this cruel joked they had played on her.

“Well it was...nice...to meet you, but if you don't know how to leave then I think I should be on my way.” Or at least on her way away from lurking strangers. Hotaru placed her front paws together and offered a bow of her head. It was a mildly uncomfortable encounter, but he had been nice enough at least. If he had nothing else to add she would be on her way and hopefully would have better luck than he did.

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last post for me

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Another exchange and this time, the head of the other wolf looked in his direction. No, wait, she was definitely looking right at him. It felt like a rock just sank in his stomach to make that realization and maybe he might have swallowed a couple somewhere trying to snatch lizards earlier.

“Ah fuck,” he breathed out against the hot sand.

It was time to go.

Abruptly, as though something else had caught his attention altogether, Lakhos rose and immediately began his retreat. The distance he thought would surely buy him time if they decided to follow, but it was worth expending some energy to make haste and run away before they came to that decision. If they were going to—he didn’t see why they wouldn’t, considering he had been lurking off in the shadows like a nuisance to begin with.

Up one side of the dune he had been against and down the other, he winked out of sight just as quickly as he had come in. Better that way. He could beeline for whatever cover he thought was enough to camouflage him until he was certain danger close had become danger far and passed.
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