[Clover]

Clover was tired. She didn’t know how far she’d walked, or the last time she’d slept. Her last foray into dreams had left her with hazy, floating images of her...she wasn’t sure. Siblings? Children? Unrelated kits that just happened to look like her and knew her name? Whatever they were, they hadn’t been far from her thoughts since she’d last dreamed. The solution for this, she knew from past experience, was to starve them out. She would go as long as she could without sleep, and when she finally collapsed there wouldn’t be anything, just the deep black of exhaustion. She could manage it, as long as she kept moving.

Distantly, she noticed that the grass around her was very near the color of her own fur. Like she was blending into the land around her. Disappearing, slowly, strand by strand -

A strong scent caught her nose, distracting her from the frankly delirious line of thought. Someone lives here. A lot of someones live here. Other creatures were also a distant memory, besides the visitors in her dreams. This realization unsettled her, as the gaps in her memory always did, but it unfortunately also made her pause in her endless, steady pace, and exhaustion hit her like a falling log. Her legs buckled, and her muscles refused to go any farther, and she collapsed into the grass. Amber eyes drifted slowly shut, despite her every effort to force them open, to keep moving, to keep awake. Finally recognizing the struggles as fruitless, she curled up as much as she could. She really should have found somewhere more sheltered to sleep, but even shifting her limbs into a more comfortable arrangement had felt like dragging rocks across the ground. She let her eyes close and fell into slumber, with a final plea drifting through her mind.

Please don’t dream.

[Sybella]

Sybella wasn't sure why she was always at the borders. Acceptances often made her uncomfortable, like it wasn't her place to judge whether or not a stranger was worthy of being welcomed into the pack. Especially with the stipulations that were specified during the rangers meeting. This was why she was a shepherd. She liked watching puppies, not being a judge of character.

She did it anyway, mostly because she knew the pack was lacking the manpower. Also, because she was bored. When she wasn't watching the babies, she knew she could get some sort of entertainment from the border. So when she sat at the mouth of the wall and wall and saw a peculiar amount of movement from the grass, she bolted. At first thought, she assumed it was the sabre that attacked her pal Rook. Why she was running full speed towards a sabre by herself was beyond her fuckin' knowledge, but it felt right. It was reflex. DEFEND YOUR HOME, SYB.

But she was pleasantly, so pleasantly surprised when she slowed her gait to see that it was just a green.. fox? It was pretty large for a fox, bigger than her actually. It had foxy attributes though, and three tails? The oddities that she witnessed in Gemini since she's joined has been enough for a lifetime. After clearing her throat in an attempt to awaken the green fox-wolf, Sybella nudged the resting creature lightly with her paws. She didn't witness the creature walking before her fall, just the slight bit of movement when she did.

"Oy, miss. Wakey, wakey! Ye needa... healer er some sort?"

She was not cut out for this.

▌note:

[Clover]

Sleep was like a heavy blanket over her, that dulled her senses and her responses. Especially the deep dreamless sleep of pure exhaustion that she’d driven herself to. It was like sitting at the bottom of a lake, where all sound was garbled and muffled, but she was definitely hearing something. Was that...speech? Was someone talking? To her? Panic gripped her half-awake mind, fearing the dreams had found her after all.

Wait. No. This was...different. This wasn’t the children of her dreams. This was unfamiliar, and sounded older. Someone was actually speaking to her. Actual, out-loud speech, which she hadn't used herself since...well, she couldn't remember the last time she'd spoken aloud. Literally.

The shock and surprise of it roused her enough for her to raise her head, though her muscles still protested and her vision was still blurry with fatigue. Browns and reds swam before her, with two green spots in the center. The words similarly bounced around in her mind, refusing to sit still and make themselves understood.

The word healer finally wormed its way out, and immediately she tried to voice a protest. I’m not hurt, I’m just tired. But disuse had rusted her voice, and exhaustion still plagued her, and so all that made it out was a weak sort of croaking noise before her head flopped back onto her paws. Still awake, and breathing heavily from the effort, but speech was beyond her. She could only hope the offer of healing meant this stranger wasn’t liable to attack her in her pathetic state. There was little she could do about it, either way.

[Sybella]

"I'm not hurt, I'm just tired."
Confliction surely crossed Sybella now, staring down at the green creature who voiced that she was simply just tired. By her record, Sybella mused that it was more than just exhaustion plaguing the girl. But she wasn't one to protest, she didn't have any sort of medical history anyway.

"Alrighty then sheila, sleep if you must. But you're on Gemini territory 'ere." She let out an audible sigh to convey her frustrations, this was going to be really uncomfortable. Truly, the green fox-wolf was not doing anything wrong. But, protocols had to be followed, right? "Can't let ye continue resting until you've explained who you are and what your intentions are." Hopefully this would lead to the conversation being more productive. Maybe Clover would find herself having a new bed to rest in.

▌note: sorry for the length! had a busy weekend, and i'll be out of town next week. so i wanted to get this goin' for ya!

[Clover]

Gemini wasn't immediately familiar to her, but she knew territory, and that she needed to force her way past the wall of her exhaustion - again - and come up with an acceptable answer before a misunderstanding went too far. She opened her mouth, closed it.  Curled her lip, more out of frustration at herself than any real anger. The word was in there, she knew how to use it, rusted tongue or no. Surely it hadn't been that long.

She chose to ignore the fact that she couldn't even answer herself with certainty.

"Clover," she finally managed, though she sounded like she'd been drinking gravel. "I'm called...Clover." By no one but herself, to be fair, but a name was a name. "Just...want to sleep. I won't...hurt anyone." Speaking grew easier the more she went on, her mouth remembering how to form the syllables, even if she couldn't lift her head or even really open her eyes. All of that energy went to the attempt to speak coherently.

"Just...I just need rest. I walked a...long. Long way." Fatigue still muddied her mind, however, making her have to search for what should have been simple statements, leaving odd, long gaps in her sentences and making her repeat herself as she tried to regain her thought. "Don't want...to cause trouble."

-------

((ooc: 'Tis fine, i'm in the same boat. This week feels like it's lasted a year -_- I'll be out of town myself until next Thursday.))

[Sybella]

It was necessary to crane her neck and push her ears forward in order to hear on the green-lady was trying to croak. Literally, croak. Her voice sounded dry and terribly parched. Listening alone was enough to make Sybella thirsty. She began to pity the girl, which was worrisome. Was that what saboro would want? Is she being tricked? Sybella found it hard to believe, again recollecting the meeting she'd had with some of the other pack members regarding how to spot the enemy. Learning now that her name was Clover, and that she was truly just exhausted and was in no way a threat, Sybella decided that this one here didn't seem to provide a need for worry. And if she was, there was really nothing Sybella imagined Clover could do until she'd gotten some rest, and water.

"Clover, I'm Sybella I..." She looked down at the girl who was still laying, and wondered if she should be whispering as to avoid making her uncomfortable? "Perhaps it'd be best to come rest within the walls, Clover? Until you're well, then you can decide if you'd like to be on your way again, or if you'd like to stay." She wanted to tell the green girl how great Gemini had been to her, and how she'd wished she'd stay, but just as those who catered to her when she was found, she had to make the decision on her own.

▌note: we can continue this! if clover accepts syb's offer, you can consider her accepted and RP her freely through out Gemini :)
feel free to join our pack discord if you haven't already, as we have short form RPs available on there as well! also, don't forget to post in the ranking thread in the OOC section of the pack! she would be considered a recruit! hope you had a good christmas!

[Clover]

Sybella. The name acted like an anchor, somehow dragging her mind and her vision back where it belonged. The muddled colors coalesced into a proper image, and she suddenly realized what was actually happening. She'd known, sort of, but the sharpness of reality was sudden and almost painful. A border, she'd found the border of something - Gemini - and she needed to move before she was moved. She was still so, so tired, but with the knowledge that there was somewhere else to go, something else to do, she resigned herself to the waking world and dragged her legs back under her. Each foot felt like it had a brick tied to it, but she'd dragged them down the path before, and she could do it again.

"That....sounds good." Less chance of being eaten, she thought, but she wasn't sure if that would be appreciated by this Sybella. Maybe they had water in Gemini. Her throat, now that it was being used for the passage of sound again, was terribly dry. You have to move your feet to get there, Clover.

Who knew, maybe something here would help. Maybe being around others was the key to the mystery in her dreams. Or it could ruin everything, and she'd be left with even less than before.

Only one way to find out.

((Sorry this took so long, life has been devouring me from the feet up for the last couple of weeks orz Thanks for the tips! Hope your Christmas/New Year was good too~))