wsv - cuz somewhere in the crowd there's you

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The forest blurred at its edges as Konnyr moved through it.

He walked with the same measured precision he always did— head level, shoulders square, expression carved into something unreadable— but his mind was nowhere near the path beneath his paws. It lingered in the pulse of the Oak. In the suffocating press of thorns. In the word he had spat into the nightmare like a challenge.

Chaos.

The front of his hind right paw burned where the bark had torn it. The gash along his toes had reopened more than once on the journey back, staining the fur and stiffening it with drying blood. He compensated instinctively, angling the limb just enough that it dragged instead of bore full weight. Each step pulled at torn flesh.

He did not react. Pain was background noise.

The scent reached him before the sight did— clean sap and faint herbs beneath the deeper smell of forest soil. Subtle. Familiar.

He lifted his head.

Cora stood right in front of him, light catching along the edges of her fur. She looked newly returned to the world, as if the den had only just released her. There was still a fragile quality to her stance, something carefully held together— but she was upright. Present.

They had not meant to meet.

Konnyr stopped a few paces away. His posture did not shift. His gaze settled on her, steady and guarded, the quiet of him almost severe. No explanation, just a slight head dip as a subtle greeting.

Another Timber. Another pair of eyes. Another voice to remind him what he was.

Outsider.

The thought rose automatically, as natural as breath. He had learned to expect it before it came.

Cora’s eyes moved over him— not lingering on his face, not searching for weakness— but lower. She noticed; the slight tilt of his leg. The drag. The unnatural stiffness in his step.

Her ears tipped forward. Concern softened her features, not pity— never that— but something attentive and immediate.

Konnyr shifted as though to continue past her. His paw touched down. The pain flared sharp enough to almost buckle the joint. His stride faltered— briefly, but enough.

Cora stepped closer. There was hesitation in the movement, but beneath it was quiet resolve. She circled just enough to block his path without force, her body angled in a gentle barrier.

He looked at her. Blank. Controlled.

If she expected protest, it did not come in words. He simply stared, jaw tight, breathing slow.

She lowered her gaze again to the wound, then back to him. A small motion of her head— subtle, insistent. Not a command. An invitation that assumed compliance.

He could have refused. He could have stepped around her, could have bared teeth or hardened further into silence.

Instead, he held her gaze for a long second more. There was no judgment there. No weighing. No calculation of bloodlines or belonging. Only concern. And a flicker of curiosity, gentle and unguarded.

Something in his chest tightened— not anger this time, but confusion at the absence of what he had braced for.

"Come on."

She turned back the way she had came from. A soft nudge accompanied the movement, careful of his balance but firm enough to redirect him.

He did not resist. He pivoted with her, falling into step a half-pace behind.

The forest resumed its quiet hum around them. Konnyr’s thoughts drifted again, but they did not return to thorns. Not fully. The sting in his paw persisted— biting— but it no longer felt like a solitary burden carried in defiance.

Cora glanced back once or twice to ensure he followed. There was a trace of self-consciousness in the way she moved, yet she did not allow it to slow her.

Konnyr said nothing. He kept his head level, expression composed, but his eyes tracked the ground more carefully now. The drag of his paw shortened.

Another Timber here to judge me. The thought came again— quieter this time.

She had not judged. She had seen the wound before the wolf.

And so he went with her, silent and rigid in posture, yet yielding all the same.

WC: 693.

Collab with @AhikuWolf ! I did the sketch, lines and colors and she did the shading and the background. I love how you added their breath as well, forgot to mention that last night hhh thank you for collaborating with me : )