6/7/2026, 9:16 PM
![[Image: 3cffdc614f8365755a476c0de39c8db0.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/3c/ff/dc/3cffdc614f8365755a476c0de39c8db0.jpg)
Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
3-3-3 OC
3-3-3 OC
SpeechEmotional 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.
