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thread is backdated to 5/27/2026

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
3-3-3 OC

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Speech Emotional Actions Thoughts

The wind never stopped here.

It came off the endless plains in hard, slicing gusts, carrying the dry taste of distance and saltless spray that hinted at what lay beyond the edge. The ground beneath Bao’s paws gradually changed as she approached, the soft, forgiving earth giving way to thinner soil, then fractured stone—until even that began to break apart into jagged, unreliable footing.

Ahead, the world simply… ended.

The Steep Cliff Drop of the Plummeting Cliffs stretched across her path like a wound in the land itself. It wasn’t a clean break, not something natural in the gentle sense. It was violent geology—raw stone torn upward and then left to crumble at the mercy of time. Below, the shoreline churned in restless motion. Dark water slammed against sharpened boulders, and hidden currents pulled at anything foolish enough to fall within reach. Whirlpools spun like watching eyes, patient and hungry.

Bao slowed.

Her breathing was steady, but her steps were more careful than they might have been weeks ago. The life growing within her shifted subtly with each movement, a quiet reminder that haste was no longer something she could afford. 8 weeks along—Far along enough to make every unstable stone feel louder beneath her weight.

She stood at the threshold of the drop, ears angling forward into the wind, fur ruffled by the constant pressure of air spilling upward from the abyss below. For a moment, she did not look down. The pull of it was there anyway—an instinctive warning etched deeper than thought.

The cliffs did not care who stood at their edge.

Bao lifted her gaze instead to the distant line of the horizon, where land and sky blurred into one pale seam. Somewhere beyond this broken shoreline, Tianlong waited—farther than it should have been, farther than it felt fair to be. Days of travel still stretched between her and the place she was trying to return to.

Behind her, the plains were quiet. Ahead, the world demanded caution.

She adjusted her stance, weight shifting carefully, deliberately, as if the stone itself might betray her if she rushed. Then she began to move away from the edge—not too close, not too fast—following the cliff’s cruel curve, where every step was a negotiation between survival and gravity. She could see Tianlong in the distance, but she was so tired,

Below, the water kept calling without words.

And Bao did not answer it.

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
3-3-3 OC

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Speech Emotional Actions Thoughts

The wind stole most sounds before they could travel far.

Bao had been moving carefully along the cliffside, head lowered against another vicious gust when the howl reached her. Faint. Drawn thin by distance and the endless rush of air. For a moment she almost thought she'd imagined it.

Then it came again.

Her ears lifted.

A familiar note threaded through the wind.

Layre.

The realization struck harder than she'd expected.

Bao stopped walking, paws braced against the uneven stone. For several heartbeats she simply stood there, staring out across the fractured cliffs while disbelief wrestled with relief. After everything—the upheaval of the world, the endless travel, the uncertainty—she had not expected to hear a familiar voice here.

Certainly not his.

She turned, searching the landscape until she caught the faint outline of a wolf further along the cliffs.

A breath left her.

He was alive. Tianlong was alive, perhaps, looking for her?

The tension she hadn't realized she'd been carrying loosened slightly from her shoulders.

Drawing herself upright, Bao answered.

Her howl was softer than it once might have been, worn thin by exhaustion and weeks of travel, but it carried all the same. A call meant to guide rather than challenge.

Here.

When the sound faded, she began making her way toward him, carefully picking her path over the treacherous stone. The journey had left its marks on her. Dust clung to her coat. Her trot was heavy, and less graceful that she wanted it to be, her stomach stuck out at the sides, rounded, and an annoyance. Fatigue lingered in every movement.

Yet despite that, a small smile tugged at the corner of her muzzle as she finally came close enough to see him properly.

Layre.

The greeting left her in a quiet exhale.

For a moment she simply looked at him, making sure he was truly there.

Her gaze swept briefly over him, noticing the way he carried himself, the lingering signs of injuries not yet fully healed. Not that she looked much better, scars littered her everywhere, her legs no longer neat and smooth, pale skin peaked through missing patches of fur.

You look terrible.

The words were dry, carrying the faintest hint of humor.

Then, after a pause:

It's good to see you..

And for perhaps the first time in many days, Bao meant it completely. She finally saw someone she knew, even if just barely, but he'd helped her when she returned to Tianlong after her assault, had provided her comfort from a distance when physical touch made her want to puke, had fetched someone to bring her a perfume when she couldn't bother do it herself anymore that day.