Everything's Explodin' Into Ash

Crusade had run and run til her paws and her back and her leg- till her everything ached. Poor Cifer, who was seriously gone out of his head with worry, had had a head start, made longer by Crusade's pause to help Ithurial, and with pure terror aiding his paws, he'd used to it get far, far afeild. Add onto that that Crusade was odd. She had plenty of war wounds covering her legs to make this hard. And she was old. Older than Cifer. Even if she'd made ten look like the new eight, this was asking a bit much of her. "Dang flang it Cifer!" she called, faltering. She had to stop for just a second, hanging her head and panting, sucking in great lungfulls of air. "I'm too old for this." she growled to herself, but a second later she was taking off again.

They were well out of the foothills now. The ground evened up and Crusade could see Cifer clearly out ahead. How was he still running that fast? He'd never liked running and yet here he was with enough energy to have outstripped Insomnia if he'd wanted. Crusade pushed herself harder and harder, forcing her old legs to faster and faster. It hurt like heck, but so what? She used to be able to push all care about pain out of her head. She would do so again if she head to! Of course, without the rush of adrenaline given in a fight, it was more difficult than she'd ever anticipated.

But somehow, somehow, she started to shorten the distance between them. A shadow across the land, had her chin raising and eye darting to the skies. Some good that bird was doing. Crusade had never seen any use in companions - even Frisk had just been a snack she was saving for later. That was it, distract her mind - think about old times, push the pain out of her head. One stride after another, she just kept pushing until finally she found herself right behind him. "Cifer!" she shouted. "Cifer, get a grip!" But if he'd run this far it was unlikely that words were going to do any good. Luckily, her poor aching body did the work for her. It tripped - sending head over heels, falling onto Cifer's back end.