3/15/2026, 2:51 PM
Elaine
Elaine had barely begun to understand her own fall when the world delivered another. She walked beside Rivers through the winter-bitten field, her steps careful on the frost-hardened earth. The blue fissures unnerved her; glowing veins of something ancient and wrong, but she kept close to the roguish wolf who'd found her half-dazed only hours before. His presence steadied her in a way she didn't yet have words for.
She was still learning him. Still learning this place. Still learning herself. But the sound that split the quiet, the heavy whump of a body hitting deep snow, needed no translation. Elaine's head snapped up. Instinct surged before thought and she broke into a run. "Someone's fallen," she called over her shoulder, breath fogging the air. She knew that sound too well. The rush of wind. The helpless drop. The way the world rose up to meet you with no promise of mercy. Her own ribs ached with the memory. The drift was still settling when she reached it, powder cascading down its sides like a slow exhale. A shape moved within it. Broad, powerful, struggling free with a desperation that made her chest tighten. Rivers would likely arrive a heartbeat later. Elaine approached the stranger with her posture low and open, healer's calm wrapped around her like a second pelt.
"Easy," she murmured, voice soft but steady. "You're safe. You're on the ground." The male shook snow from his coat, golden eyes wild with confusion and something deeper. Fear, grief, a frantic need she recognized even if she didn't yet know its name. He looked around as though expecting a familiar world to snap back into place. It didn't. Elaine swallowed gently. "I fell too," she offered, not as explanation but as connection. "Not long ago. I don't know why it's happening… but you're not alone in it." The fissures pulsed beneath them, casting eerie light across his face. Elaine kept her gaze on the newcomer. Watching the tremor in his breath, the way his paws dug into the snow like he needed the earth to hold him together. "Are you hurt?" she asked softly. "Or… is it someone you're trying to get back to?" His silence was answer enough. Elaine's tail swept once behind her, slow and reassuring. She glanced at Rivers, then back at the stranger. "My name is Elaine. This is Rivers." Her voice was soft as she gave the introduction, mismatched eyes shifting from one male to the other.
Sarge
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