Caught in a Storm

Walk | Talk | Think

It felt as if getting caught in storms was simply becoming a habit of hers, although it had never been her intention. The weather over Valhalla had been peaceable if anything, cloudy but not so horrid as to contain her inside the pack's boundaries. She had gone, venturing across the west and trailing further east and south, all the while assuming that the ever growing sky full of clouds would be as timid here as it had been back home. Inattention ultimately had led to her downfall yet again. As if some unseen faucet had been turned, the rains fell from the skies, a sudden, heavy downpour. And as everything within its reach turned soggy and wet, thunder rumbled and lightning began to light up the skies. It was unpleasant, to say the least, and dangerous if she wished to consider the lightning that could, undoubtedly, at any moment, strike too close for comfort, but the best Ashtoreth could hope for was that the rumbling storm would wear itself out fast and she could return to Valhalla with nothing else to show for her excursions but a sopping coat.

The grounds were not yet so wet as to add slipping to the list of dangers, so her tread as she moved was swift and cautious, refusing to rush through an unfamiliar territory for lack of understanding how the land sat alone. She paused beside the wide base of a tree, and though rain water streaked down her face in rivulets, her eyes blinked against its sting, she smiled. The last time she had been in such weather, she had been rescued and escorted back to the very cozy den of the Valhallan Lead Warrior, destined to spend a few hours happily trapped in his company by the storm. But as pleasant as those recollections were, as much as she would have liked for him to magically appear and perform yet another rescue, Ash knew it wasn't in the works. He would not have been so foolish to go gallivanting off into the free lands when bad weather was on the horizon. She would have to rescue herself this time.

The small, lean grey wolf traveled a little further through the woods, body hunched and tucked against the storm, when another consistent rumbling gave her pause. Her squinted two-toned eyes blinked, half expecting to hear the sound of thunder as it rolled across the skies and growled overhead, but it stayed away, and it didn't fade. Her confusion only lasted a second longer before she realized what the sound was, and, turning her head toward it, she followed it to find a calm, wide, yet swift moving river. She stared at its banks for a short minute, trying to log the location for later use if it could be managed, but didn't stay long. If the storm stayed heavy and dangerous like it was, the river could very well flood, and the last thing she wished to have to worry about was outrunning a flood. So she turned and headed away from the water, hoping that she might find shelter from the storm somewhere hidden in the woods.