This was a part of the lands she had not been to yet. Boreas was under fire, though not literally. She couldn't seem to escape the storms and lightning that ravaged the lands, at least, not until she made it to the cover of the trees here. What she didn't realize until she broke into the safety of the trees, was the fact that it was swampland, and she knew all sorts of hidden dangers lurked in places like this. Everything was dark, and there was almost no light while the dark and heavy clouds loomed in the sky and rain poured down. Still, she was sure she would find shelter here, and it was better than being caught out in the storms...

Little did she know, however, that something was watching her from the water's edge.

"Sakura Haruno"

Habari was...not a place she wanted to be anymore. But until she finally summoned up the courage to fight for her freedom, or someone else fought for her, she was stuck in that hellhole. Despite the raging storms, the skeleton-marked woman used the elements to cover her tracks as she took off and headed South. Though the further she went, the worse the storm got, and eventually, she was forced to find cover. The closest cover of trees were the swamplands that she had been to before, though it had been quite a while since she was here. She slid to a stop beneath a water-laden tree, her coat soaked and the white bits of her fur were muddied and blended in with the rest of her mud-brown fur, but hey, at least the rain was washing away her rotten stench. She shook the excess mud and water from her pelt before turning around to follow the swamp water's edge, the woman knew full well what sort of creatures lurked in these parts. But she was always one to throw caution to the wind. After all the shit she'd been through? She wasn't afraid of the monsters that lurked beneath the surface. Although she should've expected the unexpected, the thunder and lightning above the trees had distracted her just a little more than she wanted. Before she knew it, she heard the crashing sound of water, and in the split second it took her to look, a gator had erupted towards her. Startled, Medusa fell back into the mud, causing the gator's teeth to miss her by a hair, but felt its heavy head land on her with a heavy thud, knocking the wind from her and pinning her to the ground. "Medusa"

She was not far from the commotion that erupted behind her. The koi-painted she-wolf heard the thunder and lightning, but her keen ears caught the sound of something that did not come from above. No...this sounded different. Like something erupting from the water. She knew what kinds of creatures lived here and had been keeping an eye on the water, but this had come from behind, and it was followed by a startled yelp. She immediately turned around and raced towards the source, and it wasn't long before she found another wolf trapped beneath the head of a gator as she tried to avoid snapping jaws.

With narrowed eyes and unsheathed claws, Sakura rushed in, determined to help this wolf. After all, she couldn't fathom just leaving someone to die like that. Where was the honor in being ambushed by a gator and killed that way? No. There was no honor in a death like that at all. She leaped onto the gator's back, claws gripping the hard leather skin as best she could and the gator turned its focus from the skeletal-marked wolf to her. It thrashed, tail whipping around and head twisting trying to reach her, but all Sakura cared about was that the other wolf got out from her trapped position, and when she did, that's when the koi-woman reached with a set of sharp claws and swiped towards the gator's eyes.

"Sakura Haruno"

She struggled beneath the gator's heavy head as it pinned her. And every time it tried to snap its jaws for her, the survival mode she had been living in her entire life had yet to fail. She rolled and flailed and did everything she could to keep those jaws from grabbing any part of her, but she was still trapped and unable to get up quick enough without turning her back to the reptilian beast! When she thought she'd be stuck there forever, something had caught the gator's attention, causing it to turn its head around and off of her. Medusa scrambled to her feet, heart hammering against her body and feeling like it was going to leap from her chest. She took a moment to breathe before looking to see what happened, and then she spotted the woman with some pretty markings on the gator's back. Oh! She couldn't just leave her to face the beast alone now, could she? No. She wasn't like the assholes of Habari. After taking a few moments to recover, her adrenaline gave her the fuel she needed and so she rushed in, her sharpened claws at the ready, and aimed a swipe at the side of the gator's neck while its attention was drawn the other way. It hissed and did the usual aggravated gator noises when it felt her claws slice through the more tender skin, thrashing its head towards her while also trying to fend off the attacker on its back. "Medusa"

The other woman had managed to get up and on her feet, and instead of fleeing, the skeletal marked girl decided she was going to fight, too. Good. So she wasn't a coward, and she evidently had a heart. She would've felt pretty miffed if she just saved a stranger's life for nothing. The gator thrashed beneath her, and Sakura made sure her claws were secured into the gator's skin so she wouldn't get thrown off. Medusa attacked from the front...sort of. Cutting the thinner skin of its neck when it tried to turn towards the wolf on its back. Despite the fact it was bigger than both wolves, the gator was outnumbered and not up to snuff with taking them both on.

It curled around, tail whipping towards Medusa as it did so before quickly making its way back to the water. Sakura cursed under her breath and sought to pry her claws free as fast as she could, and the moment the gator touched the water, it began to roll. Shit! Sakura's claw had gotten stuck in its skin, and before she knew it, she went under for a moment, then up, then under again. She felt the crushing weight of the gator as it tried to roll her off. At some point after a few rolls, her claw had broken free from the skin and she flailed back to the bank, coughing and sputtering from the water she had inhaled, though she quickly put some distance between her and the flailing reptile as it thrashed its way back to deeper water.

"Sakura Haruno"

The gator seemed to be frustrated with the pair of wolves attacking it, but Medusa wasn't about to let up. As the gator thrashed, Medusa jumped back to put some space between her and the reptile. As she was about to go for another hit, the gator decided it was done. It whipped around, the tail smacking her and knocking her to the ground, sending her into a daze and she swore she saw birds floating around her head. When she sat up, head still swimming from the hit, she heard splashing and the other wolf's head disappearing into the water before reappearing again. It happened a few times, but finally, the other wolf had broken free. The other pretty wolf coughed and sputtered, water pouring from her coat as she made it back to the shore, pulling herself closer to where Medusa sat before dropping to the ground. "Are you okay? That was scary huh?"