A Wandering Child
Trudging through the forests, the trio walks in relative silence as they keep an attentive eye on their surroundings, ears strained for foreign sounds. It’s a warm day in Warrenfall, thankfully, so while they do not have to race against the weather… the wildlife is still a primary concern. Their objective is to locate and retrieve a lost child, one who had wandered off from their village some hours back. These three, while guildmates, were not terrible well-acquainted with one another, but such a thing is easily ignored when responding to the mothers plea for help.
Before heading out, the mother had tied a brightly patterned scarf around each of their necks, saying that her daughter would recognize it.
The feathered one, Torin, used a paw to shift aside a large bush to glance behind it, an ear flicking at seeing nothing, no torn cloth, no footprints… “Hm.” The scent they’ve been following is faint, threatening to disappear entirely from how strongly the winds are working against them, blowing against their side, distorting the trail. Her head is lifting, sniffing at the air with mild concern, “it smells like a storm will be blowing in soon…” that won’t be good.
Manah and Zephyr frown in unison, the Vayrons padding close to one another. If a storm comes in while the kid is still lost… the chances of them making it back home alive is slim.
“She’s been gone a few hours,” Zephyr begins, his head hanging low, close to the ground to try and see if the scent is less disrupted down here, “she couldn’t have gone this far…”
“If she were walking, no,” Manahs eye is caught on black tufts of fur caught in the brush they’re passing, she’s pausing briefly in order to examine it, “unless she’s being chased by something…” a sniff… wolf. “We need to hurry.”
Torin grits her teeth in mild frustration as they travel faster, she hopes they aren’t too late… it worries her greatly, a child caught in the teeth of a wolf… they wouldn’t stand a chance. If the kid is only injured if they can find them, though, she’ll at least be able to treat them.
Suddenly Zephyr is bolting ahead of them, his eyes wide in mild panic, “I see torn clothing!” He calls back to his companion as they rush after him. Caught on the thorns of a bush, he can see some tattered scraps of the blue dress the mother described her child wearing before she disappeared. There’s only a little bit of it, but his concerns have skyrocketed, his gaze shooting to the ground in search of tracks…
Manah can see how the grass looks disturbed, flattened and pushed aside, “she came through here,” her ears flatten, “spread out!”
Running, the trio split apart from one another in order to keep an eye on more ground, not wanting to overlook more clues, or the child herself as they sprint through the brush, ignoring the way the low-hanging tree branches and the thorns of bushes snag at their fur, a few stray feathers of Torin being pulled off in their hurry.
A distant scream reaches their ears, before the sounds of their paws pounding against the earth overwhelm their hearing, pupils pinpricked with wild determination to make it in time, before the worst can happen.
Their hearts pounding in their chest, Torins leaping over a fallen log that’s in her pathway as she veers ahead, the scent of wolf and child growing stronger and stronger the deeper into the wounds they descend, and, worryingly enough… the scent of blood.
Zephyr swallows thickly, he doesn’t think they’ll have made it, there’s no way-
“Up ahead!” Manah and Torin call, practically in unison as their eyes lock onto the child that’s trapped up in a tree, her leg bloodied as two wolves snarl and pace below, deep claw marks gouging into the bark, likely in their attempts to try and grab her.
The females release a truly vicious sound from the depths of their throat, not hesitating to launch themselves at the canines, who yelp and whirl with snapping jaws at their sudden attackers.
Zephyr allows them to do as they please as he darts by, he’s terribly nervous around humans, but he’s pushing that discomfort down as he skids to a stop at the base of the tree, he wishes he could reassure the terrified little girl that she’d be alright, but… he’s not a Mentalist, so communication is impossible.
Thankfully, though, she seems to understand that they’re here to help, true to what her mother had told them, she can recognize the scarves that’s around their neck. She holds still as Zephyr skillfully hauls himself up into the tree, letting him give a reassuring lick on the head, before he’s biting down on the back of her dirtied dress, lifting her up as he peers down to his companions…
Their fury is unmatched as they rip and tear at the wolves, the sounds of shrill screams and yelps deafening to the ears as the canines are mauled by unsympathetic jaws. Fighting back is pointless, but escaping even more so, neither female is keen on letting them go.
Zephyr cringes at their brutality, gaze flicking to the girl who covers her face to block out the sight. He doesn’t blame her, he turns his head to angle her in the opposite direction as he carefully climbs down the tree, until they’ve reached the ground. He’s placing her down onto the soft grass, his body positioned between her and his companions as he investigates her injured leg. There’s thankfully no teeth or claw marks, so it doesn’t seem that she was physically caught by the wolves… but instead she must’ve injured herself while running, her leg scraped.
Manah and Torin have made quick work of the wolves, spitting their limp bodies from their jaws, their breathing heavy from adrenaline, before Torin is letting out a long sigh, turning to the duo with furrowed brows. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, just cut up from running,” Zephyr answers, stepping aside as Torin comes up beside him, deciding to let her take over from here.
Manah, meanwhile, decides to busy herself with dragging the corpses of the wolves away, deciding that it’d be best to get them out of view of the child as she’s beginning to be patched up by Torin.
Zephyr joins her, grabbing the other corpse to speed up the task. With the bodies tucked behind the bushes, Manah lets out sigh, and glances to her male companion.
“Well, we weren’t too late, thankfully.” She doesn’t think she would be able to stomach the sight. She wipes at her bloodied jaws with the back of her leg, “she got lucky.”
“Yeah…” Zephyr glances back to Torin, the feathered Vayron skillfully disinfecting and bandaging the girls injured leg from the supplies she pulls from the bag around her waist, having come prepared.
It doesn’t take long for the girl to be taken care of, her injuries only moderate. Torin considers hoisting her up onto her own back, though reconsiders as Manah approaches, deciding that the other female would be better suited due to her lack of feathers. Manah doesn’t seem to mind the task, taking the child without batting an eye.
“We should hopefully be able to make it back before nightfall,” Zephyr comments as he walks alongside them.
“If not, we’ll just travel through the night,” Manah doesn’t really care either way, though she’s sure the mother will likely be in a panic if they take that long.
Torin flicks an ear at the possibility, glancing to the child that has her face buried in the back of Manahs neck, her hands tightly clinging to her fur, likely exhausted from todays events, she doesn’t blame her.
Hopefully the child has learned from this, because if there is a next time, she may not be so lucky.
***
Advanced Quest 3: A Child's Play for Alliion and QueenOfOpals
WC: 1325 Vays: Torin 15324, Manah 10545, and Zephyr 15376