405 words.
The passage of time was warped as she lay there on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Feeling sorry for herself? No. Feeling disgusted, really. And how many minutes, how many hours, did she sit there in her self-loathing? In truth, not many. Almost as soon as her fearful scream resounded in the halls, a familiar ginger shape appeared on the stairs, following a similarly familiar sound. The Imaginifer knelt, opening his black-dipped and pierced muzzle to speak.
It was the spine-tingling German accent that really gave away who the familiar stranger was. A blast from the past, artist and interesting soul alike. Cotl Ulrich, as he had so easily introduced himself all those months ago; had it really been half a year since she lived within the walls of her beautiful coymutt kingdom? Apparently so. Her crimson eyes moved from the bland ceiling to the male who was a wonderful sight as far as pack members went. It could have been worse. It could have been Halo.
He offered her his hand and she grabbed it firmly with her own as a means to haul her skinny coymutt body from the floor. It hurt. She'd done something in the fall. She stood, though, and pushed the displeasure to the back of her small, canine skull. As quickly as she had grabbed it, she released his white-furred hand, using her own to adjust and tug her time-worn clothing back into proper place.
She hadn't really listened while she was on her back, but she had a simple answer to everything. "I was gone, and now I'm back." Vague, but it served her purposes for the time being. A moment's pause, and she opened her mouth again: "Did you miss me, handsome?" Self-confidence was an image she tried to push forward onto others, even if it wasn't what she felt on the inside.
To show she was fine, a coy smile passed her lips.
The de le Poer daughter shifted her weight from one foot to the other. That was when she caught scent of her favorite beverage in the region. Liquor. With a subtle gesture of rubbing her back, she leaned toward her German friend and sniffed at the air around him. Sure enough, he was the source of the smell; Cotl was sloshed. A trilling laugh emanated from her as soon as the fact reached her brain, though she offered no clarification to it.
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