By Tougal

So, with a sense of abandonment Seelé had forced herself to leave the forest's boundaries. From what she had heard - the other esk hadn't been able to accompany her, it had already been outside of its boundary one too many times and needed to recharge its energy. Seelé had to admit that she could feel exhaustion running through her very bones, and she had only been away from that bush for a few hours - anymore time and she probably wouldn't be able to hold herself up. 

So with renewed feeling of must she pulled herself together and stalked out of the forest - no one had even accompanied her out of the forest, she guessed she was one of many and it didn't really matter what happened to her, it wouldn't put any dent on the population of these creatures, esk. She mentally frowned at her thoughts - that wasn't true, the esk had worriedly asked her if she wanted to be shown out, and she had declined. It really was no ones fault other than her own, but even while knowing this, she felt so alone...

Her thoughts came to an end once she reached the bush and she couldn't help but level a heated glare at it. This stupid thing had led her to this, she wouldn't have died if this just hadn't shown itself and all she wanted to do was to rip it apart and show it just what it had made her lose. 

But no, again, it was her fault. She had chosen to follow it, she had chosen to ignore each and every warning and hint of hesitation. 

She couldn't stay here, seeing this damned bush every day would kill her inside (how ironic), she couldn't and she wouldn't. With a glowering sneer she rushed past it. 

_

And she was lost, again, per usual, oh it was nearly funny how it always seemed to end up with her getting lost, but it wasn't, it really wasn't.

She was all alone, again. And it hurt. She wasn't used to being alone, she was a critter from a pack, she had her mother and all her littermates, and now she had no one. 

She continued on walking with her head down, her snout nearly sliding along the ground, she was so sad and so tired. She was about to just give up and let fate decide for her when a shadow loomed over her. It was a challenge just to turn her gaze up - and she wondered if esk had any natural enemies, well it wouldn't matter - whatever was standing in front of her would have an easy meal. 

How pitiful, she was already giving up and already submitting to the dying prey mentality. 

Well it wasn't anything she had ever seen before,  it was bright and its shiny fur seemed to nearly blind Seelé. 

"Are you an esk?" she whispered, hoping the other esk would catch her words. It inclined its head in affirmation and with a steady gaze it looked over her from snout to tailtip. 

"You're withering." Seelé mentally snorted, she already knew that, she probably looked horrible, not that she knew - she barely knew what her new form as an esk even looked like. The other esk seemed to nearly narrow its eyes at her disrespect and it nearly made her guilty, oh, she knew she would have been drowning in guilt had she not been so exhausted - that was just the critter she was. She muttered a sorry and the esk inclined its head again, seemingly giving her another chance. With a second glance on her back, taking note of her apparent nature features, it nodded before turning with the grace of a great egret, its fur softly flowing in the air even with no wind to hold it up. 

It took a moment for Seelé to understand that she had been left behind with no word of goodbye and she huffed, and she was rude? 

As if hearing her thoughts (which it probably did), it turned its head - its piercing red eyes narrowing at her. "You, follow me." She tilted her head suspiciously - this esk was big - not big as the deer esk or as Theo (no being could be larger than Theo, she added to herself) but it was big enough for Seelé to be considered a filling meal. That was if Esk ate each other. 

"How would I know you wouldn't eat me?" She snapped. It looked at her - incredulousness seeping into its eyes, and its body tensing in clear annoyance. 

"I wouldn't eat you, and even if I would, no even if I could - I wouldn't pick a squeak like you for my lunch." It growled, and it was with a hint of guilt she began thinking of the two actual squeaks she had met a while ago, because really - she wasn't that big but there were much smaller esk around. "Now follow. me." It continued. With a growled 'Fine' she slowly trudged up next to the admittedly gorgeous esk. "However," it began again, "I can't say the same thing about the wolves nearby." Even though Seelé had heard the hint of amusement through its voice, she went steely still - wolves? oh she knew wolves, she knew dogs. She was the best kind of snack for a canine and a wolf of all things? A wolf would rip her apart. A small realization that her chipmunk side still existed in her sent a spark of familiarity  through her, but it wasn't enough to make her ignore the blinding fear. Perhaps she would be able to outrun them, her new body was lithe and she would with some hope, be able to fling herself up a trunk or branch, a wolf wouldn't be able to reach her up there. But the exhaustion would slow her down tremendously.

The other esk had quietly been watching her for some time, she realized. "I won't let them get to you, what do you take me for?" It finally stated, and really - Seelé had no reason to believe otherwise - besides its obvious beauty it seemed to pack a strength that Seelé couldn't hope to compare to. 

_

They had been walking for a while before Seelé felt something pressing up against her stomach. It proved how exhausted she was when she  at last, realized that the esk was trying to balance her body on its snout, lifting her into the air and if she had had the energy she would have gotten shaken to her very bone and most likely fallen off, but she wasn't, she felt as if she was at her last leg so she let it happen. 

Not long afterwards she was on a hard surface, she moved her eyes around, a bench. So they were still in the world she thought she'd left - that was... comforting to say the least. She nearly let her body succumb to the exhaustion when she felt the slight chilliness from the other esk stepping up on the bench, lying down, its leg going over part of her body and she could only send the appreciation through her mind for the warmth it had lent her. 

"Larka!" a cheerful voice called out, Seelé looked up just in time for a bundle of warm tones to slam into her frame - she let out a mental screech, and tried to steady herself. "Sunny, you can't just tackle others like that." the esk chastised, it made no move to help however and contented herself with watching the two smaller esk interact. 

"Yeah, yeah, so what's your name newling?" Sunny asked, "Seelé..." She responded unsurely, "well... it's Sili in reality - but I've just kind of accepted the new name at this point..." Sunny nodded in understanding, "Well, I'm sunny and the lady here is Larka - she can be somewhat cold but she's really good in reality - she just puts up a front." Sunny winked, and with a mental grin he snuggled teasingly against her side, Larka huffed and very nearly rolled her eyes. 

_

Seelé learned a few things during this period of time - first of, her energy had quickly regenerated and her nature featured had gotten more alive, she had been told that it was because she was inside her boundary, the second thing she had noticed was that Larka was a quiet esk, who'd warmed up considerably when Seelé had apologized for her rude behaviour earlier. And the third thing she learned was that Sunny had a lot of stories to tell. 

But it really felt like home, which was odd - perhaps it was because she was inside of her boundary. She didn't delve to deep into it, choosing to instead nuzzle into Larka's thick fur and halfheartedly listening to the other male delightedly laughing about the time time he'd nearly gotten snatched by one of the wolves and how Larka had smacked it on the back of its head in such a motherly fashion. 

Base Score: 15 GP (Writing: 1504 words)
+6 GP (Storyteller Bonus: 6 GP * 1)
Total GP per submission: 21

feat: https://www.deviantart.com/esk-masterlist/art/1105-747751876

DA link; https://www.deviantart.com/tougal/art/H-e-l-i-a-n-t-h-u-s-793653688