The night was just a shade yellower than dark. A smirk of the horizon had smudged itself above the sea in the distance. The dawn collected between the tree trunks and bled into the canopy of bare branches. Winter chill nipped and greedily parted her fur to taste her skin and bones. She paused, taking a look behind her at the reddened water rippling outside the dim cover of the trees. It reminded her of blood. So she kept walking.
The innovative area smelled stiff and sharp, like poisonous herbs. Lana listened to the dulled echo of her satchel as it hit the mud and slouched against the trunk of a bending pine. She followed after it, sinking to the ground and letting her lids close over her rebellious amber irises. Her breathing slowed after a minute. In one quick, skilled motion, a cigarette was pressed between her criminal lips. The smoke unfurled from the end in a welcoming blue – similar to the berry tipped finish. Flavor burst onto her tongue followed by the melting sensation of the smoke. It filled the emptiness beside her lungs where a heart should be.
Without flinching, she felt familiar weight began pressing against her thigh. Cas rolled alongside her knee, staring up into her guarded features until she revealed her orange glower to the air again. Lana nodded at her companion, hesitantly taking the cigarette between her dark russet fingers. They would wait, as her pride would not call upon anyone to assist her. Frost laced the dark undergrowth and shivered in the bitter ocean wind. Another tint of yellow tossed and danced atop the grayness of winter.
One more place left behind and one more jar filled. The idea exhausted the woman and suddenly her fingers burned with the cold. She pressed them against the lynx’s fur, ignoring her swift purr. Blazing gaze drifted off as she inhaled another bittersweet taste of the cigarette. The hand in her companion’s fur raced down Cas’s side and against her heart before placing the same hand on the scar that adorned her own chest. There was a blunt thud behind her fingers that made her whole arm ache.
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