it hurts to read permanence

She listened as Halo spoke, one ear flicked backwards even while stepping away to search a nearby bush. The fact that Halo cared so much about her wellbeing was strange, and it made her feel a little weird, but in a good way. It didn't matter that those fears were unnecessary as Inoki felt confident in her abilities to survive the winter on her own, as she'd just head further south where it wasn't as cold and snowy. There were always workarounds if one searched hard enough. But it was the thought that counted.

"I appreciate the concern, but this won't be my first winter alone," she said with a half grin, briefly turning to look over her shoulder at Halo. She'd survived one, and she'd survive the next, and the one after that. Her brows raised at Halo's giggle, finding the sound of it quite infectious, unable to help a soft chirp of her own laughter. "Gotcha, ugly green plant with spikes here I come." It sounded easy enough to distinguish from all the other green plants around, but she wouldn't be against it taking a while to find. That just meant she could spend more time with Halo.

Her paws took her further forward, arcing in a half-circle with her nose almost glued to the ground. An internal mantra repeated in her mind as she searched: ugly, green, five, spikey. She found many green plants, some spikey, some vaguely ugly (though what determined how ugly it looked?), but none with five leaves. Her search brought her haphazardly back over to Halo, and she softly touched her wet nose to the other woman's forepaw with a grin on her face.

"Hmm, not green, leafy, or spikey. And certainly not ugly!" Inoki looked up at Halo through her eyelashes, resisting every urge in her body to offer up a wink. "Guess I gotta keep looking," she said as she stuck out the tip of her tongue again, tail wagging softly behind her, glancing up at Halo for more than a few moments before finally averting her gaze and stepping off to the side. She didn't want to push her luck too much, and the cannabis wasn't going to find itself.

Healing 2/3