what's up danger

A yowl split the air.

Lashes flickered once before opening. The girl had about five seconds to register what situation she was now in before her legs moved. A scent of a child on the wind, combined with a leopard was not a very acceptable thing to be roused for. Paws pounded against the flowery ground, kicking up dirt and petals as she raced toward the sounds. A fight, a scuffle, or perhaps something worse.

She hadn't seen a body and could assume the parent was fighting — alone. The girl registered a scruffled ground, panic and fear combined with claw markings. She registered a crop of rocks that was hiding something, and the snow leopard groaning outside the opening. The flicker of a child's eyes, terrified most likely, gleamed within the dark crack. It was enough to rouse her.

While fueled purely on instinct to rush and scout danger, she hadn't expected to throw herself into it so soon. Nonetheless, she could not sit by and do nothing. Her lips peeled back and she rushed the cat, slamming into its side and forcing it away from the crevice.

@Kalvin

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^^Kalvin had been carried off by a canine that hadn’t been his parent, nor his relative, but a thief in the night. Kalvin knew no better, of course, merely just going along for the ride, as the bandit brought them closer and closer into danger; closer to a leopard den.

The yowl split through the air, and so did large murder mitten kitten paws that landed themselves on kalvin’s forehead. Now that he was considered damaged goods to the man who’d stolen him, the thief threw him towards some rocks to distract the leopard while he made a break for it.

Abandoning Kalvin, and leaving him to die, if no one found him; if no one cared. To the leopard, an easy meal, but thankfully, someone had cared just enough.

But would it be enough to save him?

^^

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Children were innocent.

It was true, that Edelweiss did not care much for men. Even a man-child. She could smell the boy's gender through his fear, but she also saw the blood that led into the crevice. Her elders had told her upon a time to be wary of men but save the innocents. She couldn't know, only assumed, they meant children too. It wasn't the boy's fault he was a male. It wasn't her fault she was female either, only ordained by the gods themselves. So if They saw fit to deposit this boy in front of her...

She'd do what she could to save him.

The leopard faced her now, a growing snarl and indignance at its feeding being interrupted. "Piss off" she growled in response, planting her paws against the flowery field's ground. Her tail lashed behind her, mimicking the cat. Both were equally stubborn beings. Edelweiss didn't move from her position as the feline prowled in a circle, crouching. As it jumped, she raised herself to meet it. Her legs crashed against the cat's, tangled as they fell into a struggle against the earth.

Edel bit and snapped at what she could, feeling scratches and blood well in the wounds the leopard gave back. She managed to get hold of its neck, clamping down. The predator froze, terror in its eyes as she suffocated it slowly. It yowled one final time before a snap indicated she had bit down perhaps too fiercely. It slumped over her, dead. She huffed through its fur and meat before spitting it out. The girl swung her body to all fours, some very manageable scratches on her shoulders bleeding a bit.

"You can come out."

She directed this to the kid as she planted her body near the crevice, looking around for herbs.

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^^There was a lot going on that the little prince did not understand. All he knew was that there were scary sounds coming from outside his little hiding place. And then there was one final scream and a sound that he hadn’t quite heard before, then silence.

And then there was a voice, telling him to come out.

But he didn’t want to.

Outside was were the scary sounds had come from.

So he didn’t.

He parked his butt right there and stared at her from his safe place.

^^
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She didn't have time for this. Well, she did. Considering she had nothing going for her in this world yet, Edelweiss logically had all the time in the world. But it was just a statement — no need to get technical. The boy almost stubbornly refused to leave the crevice. She bit back an annoyed sigh, debating just leaving him here. She didn't owe him anything. If anything, he owed her. But he was just a kid, and kids couldn't settle debts.

"It's dead."

Instead, she plopped the leopard's body in front of the crevice. Perhaps a bit morbid, but she didn't want to waste time. She shook it a few times for good measure before turning away. She spies the lavender fairly easily and approaches it slowly. Gathering the stock of purple, she begins to chew it into a poultice to apply to her irritated skin. It's an awkward turn of her neck and burns more than she lets on. But she does it.

Applying the chewed lavender to her scratches, Edelweiss makes sure to cover them all in a thick coat. Relief sets in, and she leans back. For the first time, she sees the thief, and pity sets in. Not for them, but for the kid. While she couldn't know he had been a kidnapper, the fact remained; this kid had nobody now. She tells the boy from her spot a few steps away from the crevice; "You're safe now." But would he believe her at all?

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^^Just then, the strangest thing happened. She left to retrieve the body of the leopard, and in the time it took her to turn and grab it, Kalvin took a few steps closer to the outside, freezing when she returned to jostle the body of the dead kitty at him.

He looked at her and then looked towards the body with the tilt of his head. He glanced around and sniffed, then frowned at her as he watched her apply herbs to her bleeding spots. Oh, she was hurt! Not as bad as the gashes in his forehead, but still hurt.

He whined, hesitantly stepping closer to her.

“It dead, but is other?”

Where was his kidnapper?

^^
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She finished applying the lavender to herself before looking over at the emerged child. Without a word or consent, she leaned toward him and tried to spread the poultice on his skull. Her paw was used, but it was gently - aware that injuries hurt; especially fresh ones. She attempted to be as considerate as possible, but if she waited for him to give the 'okay'... He could bleed out. Other the boy said.

"He's dead too."

She only assumed other was describing the less-than-consensual way he was carried off. Made sense. Edelweiss's eyes drifted to the body, the other. She didn't ask where his mother was. She didn't ask much of anything. She assumed by the situation, that nobody was coming for this kid. The blood on the jaws of the thief told her enough. That was a kidnapper, perhaps ending the life of a new mother in order to steal her kid.

That blood was tainted with innocent life.

It was not leopard blood. It was wolf blood. She wrinkled her dark nose. The boy didn't belong to a pack either, else she would smell it on him. No, this could be just a single mother. A vagabond. "If it won't stop bleeding, rolling in the snow" she added to him, eyes drifting back "the lavender'll help with itchiness and some of the pain... But the snow is cold and stops bleeding." She didn't know if he would understand this or not.

"Do you have a name?" Okay, time to focus on the important things. Outside of surviving.

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^^Yoink.

Kalvin was yoinked as Eddie-girl grabbed him, applying what felt like dirt to his forehead, and boy, that stung. He whimpered, squirming pointlessly in her arms. He gave up after several moments of trying, ears flattening as she did what she wanted to do.

He went from the jaws of one kidnapper, to another, but this one was nice. She had saved him, and the only family he knew was dead or long gone. She started talkin’ about rolling around in the snow, but something about lavender. “Wat do lav-der look like? Where find?”

He nodded his head with a series of whimpers. All of this was still very frightening. “K-Kalvin,” The boy whispered, turning to look up at her.

“Momma send you?”

Why else would she kill both?

^^
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She bit back a sigh as he squirmed. The girl supposed that was acceptance; he barely knew her and here she was applying strange wet gross herbs to his head. She eventually let go, and his question was met with a point of her paw. "That's lavender" she replied to him, the tall purple wheat-like herb on full display nearby "I'm not going to march all over looking for herbs when we're both bleeding. That'll have to do." For now.

Exerting herself after a fight would open more wounds. She dealt with what she could get and see. "It'll help you feel better. Don't you feel the sting and itch going away from those cuts?" She posed a question, not smugly. She could lord it over him, but she didn't. Her tone was flat and almost expressionless. Kalvin though. "I'm Edelweiss" But that was probably too long and fancy to remember "just... call me Edel." She didn't care. He'd butcher her proper name.

"I..." she furrowed her brows as Kalvin went on. It was difficult. This situation had to be handled tactfully, and she was without that in spades "no. The leopard killed him" she explained "and I saw you hiding. So I... ran in. Killed the leopard. I don't know where your mother is" He would have been next if she simply went on with her life, after all "we can look for her." She doubted the woman was alive still, but... Edelweiss also did not wish to be branded a kidnapper if she was. The woman could be wounded and too hurt to look for Kalvin.

"Do you remember where he carried you from?"

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^^The boy went over to the lavender, now that he was released, to go over an’ sniff at it; storing the floral scent, and its wispy like appearance, to memory. It felt like if something ought to make him feel better, it was important.

“Momma no send. You kill la-purd and um, that guy, and… you give name. You make feel better.” Kalvin was assessing the situation; these were not the actions of a kidnapper. He furrowed his brows, but that hurt; he winced, and then just tilted his head at her instead.

Then she posed a question, and Kalvin took a moment to look around. Waddling around here and there, but nothing looked familiar. Of course nothing would, he’d never seen the outside. He sat down and shook his head.

How would his mother ever find him? How would he find her?

^^
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Children were so easy to trust. They took everything as truth but were hypersensitive to lies. It was strange to converse with one. She watched as he scampered a short distance away, trying to look for his mother. "Then we will stay here for now" Edelweiss decided on a plan of action "she can follow the scent to this location." But if she does not come? Well... 

"I will scout around the Moors for a few days, see if I come across any clues." Kalvin didn't know where he had come from, and the attack with the leopard had been too chaotic. The kidnapper could very well have fled in a different direction - or tried to. Too many possibilities. Too many potentials. Even if Edelweiss had a feeling the boy's mother would not be found.

She eyed Kalvin. "Don't go far. I'll come back. With food for us."

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