ooc: X'ies will pop in eventually. In the meantime... chick bonding! (While wet :O )
As the winds whipped through the lands of Sangi'lak, its inhabitants were wound and twisted by the heavy winds and beaten down by the oppressive rains which was but the beginning of a storm sure to envelop the mountain. None but the brave and stubborn dared to stand against the weather, one being stubborn fool still weakened from illness, charging out against the wind and rain to secure rations for the Family before the weather worsened. And it would get worse, foretold by her feathered companions. The owls in hiding came back shrieking of how the sky remained dark and clouded and stretch beyond what their sharp eyes could see. Rather than risk damage to their hollow limbs, they held up in the barn with the other frightened animals, acting as their guardians and alarms should their refuge begin to crumble.
Safe and sound was where the falconer should have been, but her will to protect and preserve was strong despite her own worsening condition. Her coat drenched with rain was just another weight that slowed her march to a crawl. Her wind whipped chest was sore and cold, but it was the imagined conditions of a pack without food that forced her through the rain toward the known reserves scattered across the land. Already the rivers were rising, their feed swollen with heavy rain from day before, threatening to break at any moment's notice.
She carried with her a satchel of sorts strung around her neck and back. The meat within was damp but not soaked, nothing a fire couldn't handle provided they were soon able to secure wood. Reaching another reserve, she gathered what all she could fit in the bag and desperately took hold of a severed elk leg still moist from a hunt the day before and began to drag it out from its dry refuge into the pour mess outside. Swiftness was not on her side, but still she tried to drag it all, stubbornly planting one paw in front of the other, sloshing wet ground and mud in her wake, but cared little for it. What could have taken minutes in better conditions stretched on for near an hour til she reached the solid ground of the communal dens. A tear in the bag had lost the Issor some of the meat, but the larger limb was still intact and what remained in the satchel was still dry enough to feed on. It would be enough, she hoped, praying the Ancestors would grant their favor upon the Nomads and help them secure their keep.
As she left her instructions for the meat to be separated, a cry suddenly sounded over the roar of the wind and rain. The rich octave was unique but not unfamiliar. It pricked the woman's ears and caused her hackles to rise in alarm, compelling her limbs before without much thought at all. The protests of a certain Lambda went unheeded as she bound out into the weather again to heed the call as quickly as she was able. Her chest burned while the rest of her legs and body ache, but still she pushed against it to receive the call at the borders. Her own call was weak in comparison to the raging wind, and she feared it might not have been heard due to the distance. She placed her trust in the Ancestors to give her ease of travel just long enough to reach her destination... and as always, they kindly granted her that humble favor.
Her golden eyes were useless in the rain, with only blobs of things dancing in the distance until she was near enough to better see. She could make out the form of the large steed well enough and soon after his rider enduring the brunt of the pattering rain. X'yrin quickened her pace just enough to bring her closer, nearing stepping on the beast's single toe in the process. "Vladislava!" the Nomad called out, no doubt butchering the young female's name from lack of practice. "What are you doing out in this weather!? Why have you not taken shelter?"