Washed up and wrung out

Three days of rain intermixed with occasional sleet had not done the ground's consistency any favors, and Tsuga's mood was fast deteriorating right along with it. Another gust swelled up and hammered at him, driving cold rain into his flank and eyes. The trees in this forest were large but even their branches groaned against the barrage, and every once in a while he heard the distant snap of tensile failure. Between their tangled roots small rivulets had formed now that the ground was too saturated to hold any more water, which meant any nook or hollow he might have wanted to dip into would be no dryer than just standing in the lee of a broad trunk.

Worst of all was losing the kid, though. She couldn't have gotten far, and he didn't think she was injured. Hoped not, anyhow. He thought to himself that surely he would have sensed the piqued interest of the spirits, if not outright heard Galena howling for help. Barring worst case scenarios which he refused to think about, they must have just both turned the wrong direction and in conditions like this trying to smell, see, or hear someone at a distance simply wasn't going to work out. Best he could do was hunker down and wait.

He closed his eyes and tried to level his breathing, pushing his mind into a quiet place where the storm could not reach him. Gently floating the idea of warmth and security out into the air around him to see if the tendril might get picked up and tug him one way or another.

"Talk" "Listen" Think