Spirited Away

This land was confusing to him, and it was becoming exceedingly frustrating to navigate and travel through. It seemed as if he were always making wrong turns, being forced to turn around and choose a different path because of some huge, insurmountable mountain, or the sudden appearance of a bottomless chasm. He had spent more days than he cared to count aimlessly wandering through the mountains, searching for a path forward, or a simple sign to show him he had been going in the right direction. However, had constantly been more of the same.

Of course, there had been that incident in the caves, which had been his one respite from this life of wandering in solitude. But even that seemed like a distant memory now, causing him to pause and wonder if he had actually been there, or if it were simply something his mind had dreamt up while he slept. Adrian could not remember. Every day seemed to be passing in a blur now. He knew the lack of food and water was probably having an effect on him as well. He needed something to eat and a few days of good, solid.. rest.

At least he was out of the mountains now, he had made his way down a few days ago. That was a relief. The place he found himself in now was quite the opposite of them, and the change of scenery was nice, despite the darkness of night now putting a bit of a damper on his travels. At least he had the assistance of the moon and stars, though they were faint and partially covered by clouds, it was enough. Golden eyes could only make out slight details of the rocky canyon around him, not that it mattered. He had seen it all earlier, before the sun had set. In all honesty, the view had been rather magnificent, but thus far further exploration had yet to produce much of anything tangible. Though shelter was plentiful, there did not appear to be much food.

Unless he wanted to try going after the sea creatures but... no. That did not seem like a good idea tonight. Especially not when his ears picked up the cacophony sounds going on out there, which sounded an awful lot like hunting. Adrian did his best to ignore them, knowing that some unfortunate creature was probably going to lose it's life tonight. But that was how the world went.

Though they had left him alone as he wandered the shoreline at least, so he would do the same. Perhaps he could attempt to catch some fish which were sure to be found in the water once light rose again, but that was not a very solid plan. Having never been forced to rely on them as a food source before, he was not even sure how he should hunt them, or if there was even a technique to be had. Maybe it revolved around luck, which it seemed had not been on his side lately. At least he was more fortunate than whatever was being hunted out there in the water.

The sandy wolf's ears flicked, and he tensed in surprise as another noise was to be heard, much closer now. It sounded like a body landing on a very hard rock. Golden eyes looked about for the source of this occurrence. Had some unfortunate soul come too close to the cliff edge above, and fallen to their death? Perhaps. He shuddered just at the thought of it, though there was still that part of his mind trying to decide if falling was a worse fate than being torn apart by the large sea beasts.

However, what he soon saw was even more chilling. There, in the shallow water, was a very wolf-like form lying entirely too still. It seemed highly unlikely a body would remain so.. intact after falling from such a long height, but he could not think of her coming from any other place. Shaking the thoughts aside, he splashed quickly through the shallow water, moving closer to the still wolf, his eyes taking in the feminine form of the one who lie before him. He tilted an ear down toward her and rested a gentle paw upon her side, hoping for any sign of life.

To his surprise, her breath was actually still audible, though faint and he could feel life within her. He was still curious to know how exactly she had ended up here, but as he took a look over the rest of her body, the male realized her health was more important in this instant than anything else. All he needed to know was that somehow this lady had somehow been injured before ending up here, and Adrian felt it was now his responsibility to assist. The first priority was to get her out of this cold water. She was soaked in it, and leaving her here in the dead of winter could well mean death, if her other injuries had not already made their claim upon her life.

Tentatively he reached down and took a mouthful of soggy wet fur, intending to drag the stranger out of the frigid waters and further onto dry land. That seemed the most important thing to do first, getting her dry and warmed up. He refused to believe that she would perish tonight.

(((Hopefully you don't mind how I played out this post? I can edit it if necessary.