Asagi is one of the horses missing! :> Hati is still very emo right now~
Word Count → 570
Maybe the world was ending. The heavens had opened up, crashing thunder and roaring wind, a downpour of rain washing away everything it could. It had been raining for the last several days, echoing Hati's dismal mood. His mother was dead and buried. He did not know how to cope with this morbid fact, and barely left his house since that day. He had almost run away, riding his horse deep into the night, but he turned back... he couldn't survive on his own. The loss was hard to grasp for all of his remaining family, but his father had the worst reaction of all, sinking into a deep depression now that his mate was gone. Amaranth and Charlotte were trying their hardest to reach him, bring back their king and restore some vestige of his spirit to the dog's broken body. Hati was despondent himself, and wondered if this storm was meant to wipe them out, put their sad little family out of its misery. He carried his own storm clouds, and it barely registered that now the weather outside reflected how he felt.
It was in this sorry state that he heard the cry -- torn by the gales of wind, but still recognizable as Alder's voice. Automatically Hati shuffled to his feet, abandoning his bedroom in the gloomy house. Everything was dark, though he couldn't tell if it was the time of day or merely the hurricane's grip over the sky. Listlessly he pushed the front door open, only to have it slam shut in his face, rattled by the wind. Pale eyes narrowed, and he pushed it again, this time with more force. Cold raindrops splashed in his face, assaulting the senses. The dark wolfdog moved into the tempest, raising his arm to shield his eyes as he ran.
He didn't know what Alder wanted or why the cry had gone out, but it drew him magnetically to the stables. The path was littered with fallen branches and debris, some of it wood he feared came from their buildings. The damage was fierce. In his young life, he had never seen a storm like this one, and he felt humbled at once by the power and destructive majesty of it all -- it made his problems seem small in the wake of this. His packmates would need help. The Court would all suffer, and some might lose their homes. He needed to be mature enough to assist them, even if his heart was breaking.
Hati arrived, windswept and solemn, surveying the scene with a morose look. He could easily see the old structure was damaged, swaying in the wind, scattered lumber littering the ground. Of course the stables would be hurt by this storm; the horses were the last good thing about the Court, and this hurricane was personal. It wasn't long before his sweeping gaze settled on the Marshall's tall frame, and he moved quickly to his friend's side. He was not the first to arrive -- a male packmate he had seen at the meeting, a shorter coyote-thing whose name Hati failed to recall. Once he had cared so much about memorizing everyone's names and ranks, but that meticulous habit had slipped away from him in recent times. He gave a curt nod of greeting, turning to face his teacher with concern. "Are the horses safe in the barn? How... many did we lose?"
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