From the Vast

Chapter 6: Encounter

She could probably slow down just a bit...

The old woman took a moment to stop and catch her breath on the side of the snow covered road, passing the cane over to her other hand before attempting to resume her trek, any hopes of her managing to do so without grabbing her companions' attention dashed as the Arcanine stopped with her, turning to look up at her with clear worry on his snout.

"~Don't worry Leo, I'm good, I'm good, just- just need a moment, much more walking than usual but I'll manage.~"

A glove-clad hand reaching over to stroke the hound's rich mane helped her counteract the stinging cold at least somewhat and regain more feeling in that limb, but it did little to convince Leo himself, the reassurance falling flat when compared with his human's obviously pitiful state. Much the same was true of the passenger that emerged from his mane shortly afterwards, the Ribombee's expression just as uncertain of this entire excursion of theirs. She wasted no time before trying to convey that over to her human, buzzing softly as she flew over through the light snowfall and pretended to drag the woman's free hand in the direction they came from, only making her sigh in response.

It's not like she was wrong even- her years were catching up with her, she was in absolutely no condition to be undertaking anything like this, it shouldn't have been her tired old self pushing herself through the snow and dirt deeper and deeper into these woods in search of a lost child-

But if not her, then who?

The girl's damnable parents that fled the place the moment people realized and more cops started getting involved? The cops that barely even pretended to do any searching themselves and only put up a couple disposable 'missing person' posters? The rest of this anemic, half-dead town? She shouldn't have to be one doing this, but if she wouldn't at least try looking for her, even if just to confirm what felt at this point like the inevitable, nobody else would.

"~L-let's keep going for now. Still got the lead Leo?~"

Near constant snowfall of the past couple days had mostly covered over any trail the girl had left to begin with, visual and olfactory alike, the Arcanine letting out a low ruff before starting to sniff the air again, finding himself growing increasingly unsure, even if the current path didn't exactly leave many other directions for her to have gone in. The human knew what to do, Leo's head perking up as he saw her pull out the book out of her purse once more, sniffing it intently before picking up on the trail again, slowly making his way towards it as his guardian resumed her slow march, gripping her cane even more firmly than usual.

Heh, 'Understanding Pose and Motion, Illustrated'- she could bet a fair bit of change that not a single person aside from Anne had ever borrowed that one in all the years she'd been working as the librarian. Or likely even before that point, the book's cover holding up surprisingly well considering that it was about as old as she was, judging by the print date.

As the group got going again, the Ribombee flew over to her human's pocket, snuggling up to her free hand, torn between not wanting to be out there in such bitter cold one bit, but at the same time not wanting to stay back at home while her guardian was putting herself at a risk like that. The small hug was gently responded to with the human's thumb embracing her back, her tired, croaky voice speaking up shortly afterwards-

"~I'm okay Luxie, don't worry sweetie. It's... cold, and scary, I know, but we can do this, one step at a time. Hop back into Leo's mane and warm yourself up, don't feel like you have to be freezing yourself in there for me.~"

The words had their desired effect thankfully, the lil' bee soon squirming out of the woman's pocket and looking about ready to dive back into the hound's bright mane- before stopping herself at the last moment and flying up over her human's face, the determined expression making it clear that there will be no arguing with her about this, not really. The least she could do in that case was to just comfort her some more, the elder's features softening as she closed her eyes just for a moment at feeling Luxie nuzzle her cheek with her entire body, the tiny fairy thankfully returning back to warmth shortly afterwards.