back upon the land | open

"Did you think you could join Loey in the deep dark woods?"

The question comes a heartbeat after she appears in front of the male. She isn't sure how long he's been walking back here, how long he's been trudging from there to here, but she'd hopped into her own body and to him as soon as she saw him. The somali's unwillingness to admit the weakness of missing a General had stopped the letters Ver had suggested from going out. Hope that the lame Juba wouldn't return helped keep the letters at bay. Desire to not lead alone almost brought the other two ideals down, down, down to their bending knees. Didn't end up mattering one lick. Here he is.

Her eyes dart over him, taking in singed, messy fur. Even if his departure looked willing, his stay hadn't been. Part of her hopes Lemon will show up and heal Juba and the rest of her warps her grin with a sneer. "Where did you go and what got done?"

^{I DON’T BELIEVE WHATEVER THIS IS —}

^{Absinthe approached tentatively, unsure if what she was seeing was even reality. Maybe the girl was so tired that Juba emerging from the woods was a figment of an exhausted mind. Everything that had happened lately seemed to blend together, unpunctuated by time. She couldn’t clearly recall the last time she had seen Juba, nor some of her siblings for that matter. The only people that kept her grounded. Without them, the Honorguard felt like she was floating along without a home.}

^{”Juba?” the apprentice asked after S had seemingly finished her questioning. In contrast to the other Vicar General, Absinthe’s voice was quiet, nearly a whisper, and full of uncertainty. The small feline paused at a bit of a distance away from both S and Juba, and her anxious gaze scanned the injured maned wolf from where she stood. ”Are.. you okay?” Clearly he wasn’t, but Absinthe didn’t know what else to say.}

He's skittish, but she can't tell if it's the sudden greeting, the trauma, or rapid questioning that causes it. Can't tell if she cares much, either. One of those three things is a delicious secret to making Juba nervous whenever she needs it, so all three get tucked away in her mind for later use. It will be used later - she can't imagine straying far from her roots of unsavory politics. For the Haven's sake she hopes it never gets used, but she'd be happy as a beaver to lie and say she isn't intrigued.

Mismatched eyes narrow at the answers, slide to Absinthe, take in the timid pair. Hard to think that the child had Cass for a mother and has Orion as a brother. Easy to think that she's lead by Juba. Maybe Absinthe can lead him for a change. "Walk with him. I'll find Lemon, quick as a fire in summer," the somali says after a long pause, grin brimming with sharp teeth before it disappears with the rest of her. She'll return, walking, not teleporting as she left, when she has LEMON! in tow.

"What the fuck has he done now?" Lemon follows quickly behind S until the maned wolf comes into view and he hurries past her, long legs quickly closing the distance. He kneels down beside Juba, far too tall as a horse, and looks the General over closely. Shit, how did he keep getting himself into these messes? "C'mon, dumbass"—he makes it sound almost like a term of endearment—"I'll carry you to the Infirmary if you promise never to bring it up afterwards." He dislikes being a horse, and dislikes the idea of acting like a horse even more, but Juba looks close to passing out and that's more important than Lemon's current issue.

✧ — WHEREVER I GO TROUBLE SEEMS TO FOLLOW / TAGS