bakerstreet | they are the hunters, we are the foxes

they are the hunters, we are the foxes - and we run

the ON THE RUN meme

Sometimes, these things happen. Sometimes, you're in just the wrong place at just the right time, or you've made the wrong (or right, depending on your intentions) person mad. Sometimes it's better for everyone if you just go. Sometimes there isn't time for good-bye.

LOST
You've managed to lose yourself somewhere out there, for whatever reason it was. Maybe you took someone with you (willingly? not?), or you found someone else who needed to disappear as badly as you did. You're in your car, or a cheap hotel, or a house by the side of the road. What else can you do but watch, and wait?

FOUND
It could have been as simple as being glimpsed at the 7-11. Your phoneline wasn't as secure as you thought. You locked eyes with the wrong person across the room. Now the house of cards is collapsing, and maybe not just your life, but the lives of everyone you love could be in jeopardy now. The walls are closing in, and your arms are giving out.

RULES
- post with your character's name and canon. if you have an on-the-run AU, or scenarios you might want to play out, mention them here.
- find others. tag them.
- and then, run.

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She tutted softly at the self-doctoring, shaking her head and swinging her backpack off to root through it for a first aid kit, offering an antiseptic wipe and a bandaid, "You'll make it worse doing that. Risk infection. Clean it and cover it."

She snapped the kit closed, returning it to her bag as she answered: "I've been all over Europe, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, all the way down to Greece." She shook her head then, "Not all at the same time, on different trips."

"Thanks, and what? Am I supposed to walk around on it? It is killing me," she chided back, but took the wipe and band aid gratefully. Offering her a small smile of thanks. "Yes, ma'am," she then did as she was told, cleaning it and putting a band aid over it.

"Wow, and you've done this alone? Got family in those places, or did you move around with family?" she asks. Clearly she was really interested to know the answer, wanting to travel all over the world herself one of these days.

She shook her head at the question, "My family is dead. I travel alone." It was just as matter-of-fact as most everything else she said, as if they were discussing the weather or the time of day.

Though she did at least seem to remember that this sort of thing threw people, as she added: "My mother died when I was too young to remember. Eric, who may have been my father died not so long ago. Part of why I travel the way I do."

"Oh. I see. Well, you are really lucky that you get to travel like you do, but I am really sorry to hear about your family, man," she said in a sad tone.

As she spoke Carolyn finished cleaning her wound, and placed the band-aid on top of it. It felt much better, which was good because now she could walk again without an issue. She tugged her shoe back on, slowly rolling up to standing once she had it tied up properly. Wiping off her ass, she reached down to grab her bag to re-sling it back over her shoulder. She could walk again now, feeling more at ease since she was able to rest.

Hanna set off at a somewhat slower pace in deference to her companion's injury, though she shook her head at the apology, "I am lucky to have survived." When it had been down to her and Marissa in the woods outside the home of Wilhelm Grimm, she almost hadn't survived, and she knew it.

"I travel now out of necessity. Perhaps I will find somewhere to settle eventually, but not yet." Mostly because she was still young enough that people wanted to help her, and that made it easier for her to keep moving, but also because she couldn't imagine putting neighbors at risk if someone came after her later.

"It sounds really sucky, you know, having to travel so much, and not having your family around for you? I mean, I would love to travel one day, but leisurely, do it for the culture, and the ambiance. Not because I need to escape something horri--" she stopped mid sentence, and began to sniff the air.

Slowing down, she slowly started to turn in a circle as she continued to sniff at the air. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck rising, and she growled slightly. "We've got company not to far off," she managed to say. Dumping her bag, she looked for the closest, tallest tree, and started to climb it using her nails to dig into the wood so she could pull herself up the tree more quickly. Using the tree to get a better vantage point of the area. She called down to Hanna, "we should find some better cover. Those trees across the way, they might make it a bit harder to find us as quickly," because whomever was following them was pretty far away from them, but Carolyn could catch their scent easy enough. If she was correct, it was her maker that caught their scent, or others like him. "Though, they've caught my scent again," she said with a sigh as she jumped straight down off the tree, landing on the ground on both feet. It had been a pretty hairy drop too.

Hanna wasn't entirely concerned at the sudden climb or the sudden drop, after all, she did things like that herself all the time, and Carolyn had mentioned that she wasn't like other people and she just nodded at the explanation, "Alright. Are they able to track you besides scent?"

Because if not, they could just tromp through the creek for a ways, though they'd have to get to it without getting caught first, and that could prove problematic depending on just who was after her. Hanna seemed mostly unconcerned, however. She'd been managing on her own this far, she had no doubt she could continue to do so, and even help her new friend out.

"Uh, I don't know, but they have exceptional scent receptors. They probably know I am not alone, and I am sure he knows how to track," she said honestly.

Not knowing Hanna's mind set on the idea of using water to shield their movements, Carolyn piped up with a similar plan. "If there is water close by, we could hide our tracks, we can use mud on our skin, or dirt to subdue our scent as well," she offered up.

She nodded once, "There's a creek, about a mile off." She pointed, almost the direction they'd been going, but further back into the scrubby woodlands lining the road, "It's deep, but it moves slowly, we'll be safe enough from slipping and drowning as long as you can swim."

She could, and well, but given as how the deepest part she'd found was only chest-deep on her, she also wasn't too concerned about it right at the moment.

"All right, let's get there," And with some new found vigor, she was energized to get the hell out of dodge, and away somewhere where they could hide their tracks a bit.

Hanna had asked if she could swim, and Carolyn nodded that she could. "I can swim, let's get moving," she said quickly.

"Do you think we can give them the slip down there?"

She nodded once, a quick, almost birdlike movement, "Follow me." She tightened the straps on her bag to minimize bouncing starting off at a lope that soon became an out and out run, and she ran fast, easily faster than most people who weren't professional sprinters, and she didn't seem to be lagging in energy at all, movements smooth and steady even over the uneven ground of the woods.

She trusted that Carolyn could keep up, she'd seen how fast the other girl climbed the tree and knew that if she couldn't keep up, it would be easy enough to tell and go back for her, or slow down a little.

Carolyn took off running after Hanna, she was fast, as fast as a wolf could run that is. She kept the pace pretty easily, even if she were breathing a bit heavily, she could still talk as they ran. Carolyn wasn't as completely graceful as Hanna was, but she could keep up rather easily, and her movements flowed.

Carolyn got to a point where she could both see, and hear the river. And she started to veer off toward it, expecting Hanna to do the same thing. Carolyn could pick up the smells of other forest animals in the area, and there was one thing that was pervasive. She could smell fear, fear of a deadly predator. That didn't give her any hope.

Once she got to the river, she just ran right into it as she came to a stop. Leaning forward to take a couple of gulping breaths, Then she leaned down to scoop up some water into her mouth. Moving toward the embankment so she could find a dry seat, and to start collecting that mud she needed.

Hanna, likewise, charged right into the water, skidding ahead a few feet before she managed to slow herself and trek back upstream to the other girl. She hadn't remembered which way the water ran, and moving away from their mysterious follower was helpful, as it would still flow clear from where they moved, sweeping any disturbed silt or plants downstream along with them.

She slung her bag and her shirt both up on the embankment beside the other girl, where she could get them both again once she was mud-packed, something that she went about doing with some skill, digging out a small well for herself in the bank, letting the water flow into it to soften up the darker dirt to where it was malleable and she could use it as paint.

Carolyn pulled off her shirt, and threw her bag behind her as she followed in Hanna's footsteps with the mud. When she got it to the right consistency, she began to coat her throat, upper chest, and under her arms. Working quickly down to her abdomen.

"The river, are we going to trail it on the embankment, or swim in it?" She hadn't been totally clear about the plan, and she felt now was the best time to ask Hanna since she seemed to be much better at all of this than Carolyn.

Once she was thoroughly coated in mud from the head down, she looked to Hanna. "Do you think we should go further down? Or does it matter?" She was thinking about how the water played into all of this.

"Walk in the river." She answered, working muddied hands into her hair to coat her scalp as best she could, apparently she had a fairly good idea of how scent glands worked and where they were, "Swim if it gets deep enough, wash off when we're closer to town. Two wet girls will draw less attention than two muddied ones."

She was methodical with her own mud-painting, working as she talked, "We can get the first bus out of town." She paused, then, brow creasing as she studied Carolyn for a moment, "Unless you don't think being among a crowd would deter whoever's following you."

"Right, that is what I thought, but I wanted to be clear," she replied in turn. Carolyn watched her as she put mud on her scalp, so Carolyn copied the girl. Moving to put mud on her own scalp as well. "Got it," she says as she stands, putting her shirt into her backpack. Then she slings it onto her back, tightening the straps to get a better fit.

"Okay, they got a couple of buses going north, two heading south, and one heading east. I checked the bus schedule before I left," she stated as she turned to look at the girl. Sniffing the air a bit to see how close her predator was to where they were. "The scent is still a little faint, but it is getting stronger. We should go," she was nervous, and it showed. Her voice was a little panicked, and her eyes were a little haunted if you looked into them. "I don't know him very well, he bit me when I was a baby. I never got to meet him, not til he tried to take me as part of his pack. So, I ran, and here I am," she said in a shaky voice.

She nodded once, putting her own pack back on, tying her shirt loosely around her hair and her head in an almost-turban just to keep it all out of her way, "And here you are. And here I am. We'll be alright. You've made it this long without meeting him, and I've made it this long after..." She shook her head, "After everything. We'll go south, for a while, until we can go west instead, and then we'll go west until we decide to stop."

She caught Carolyn's arm just briefly, "You aren't alone anymore." Her tone was earnest, she really did intend to keep the other girl safe for as long as she was able.

Carolyn's hair was plastered with mud, so it was all pushed back off of her face. "Yes, here we are, and I am thankful you are here. I knew I had a slim chance at survival on my own, but I really didn't want him going near my family. I just hope it is him alone, because if he is with his pack? We will have to take on a group of people, and I am not sure I am up for that," she said honestly, a bit sadly, but she had puffed out her chest, and held her head high as she said it.

"I know, we have each other's backs, and that is all that matters now," she said just as earnestly.

"And if he insists on following anyway, you and I will lead him on a merry chase." A fierce little smile followed, "We will keep him away from your kith and kin, your family."

She slipped past the other girl easily, leading the way downstream, "Be careful of the rocks, they're slippery." The rest of the riverbed was soft, almost sandy, which made walking it easier. It wasn't a particularly speedy getaway, though they were aided by the current, as they were moving downstream, it helped keep them up to speed and helped wash away any signs of their passage.

Carolyn smiled back at her, and nodded. Thankful that Hanna has come into her life, and come to her aide. If she hadn't, she wouldn't know what to do next?

Hanna tells her to be careful of the slippery rocks right when she slips on one of them, and almost goes under. Carolyn rises from the water, sputtering deeply. "Fuck!" She coughed out, spitting water from her mouth, it tasted so rank too. Though she did slip, she was still able to keep up with Hanna, the water sluicing against her sides as she moved down the riverbed.

"God, thankfully this water is actually somewhat warm, I would hate to get hypothermia," she said in a joking manner.

Hanna had moved forward to offer the other girl a hand up, keeping her own footing stable as she did so, making sure she hadn't actually inhaled any water.

She blinked, brow furrowing a little, looking lost. She did have a sense of humor, but jokes like that tended to go over her head even still, "Even with the snowmelt the river is far too warm for hypothermia." She said, "And we're too far south to have much of a risk of that except in the winter, and even then it's not much of one."

Or it wouldn't be for her, she was hardier than most, she'd been designed that way.

Carolyn was thankful for the help, and gave Hanna's hand a small squeeze of thanks for helping her gain her footing. "Thanks," she said sincerely.

When Hanna gave Carolyn that look, Carolyn's brow furrowed deeply. "I kind of new that, but I was making a bit of a joke, but thank you, that is good to know," she said nicely. Because it was nice to know, and she kind of understood that Hanna didn't seem to get her joke. Carolyn didn't want to alienate her new friend here.

"How long do you think we can go before we have to make camp?" She asked as a way of passing the time.

"Oh. Alright." She nodded once, she was still getting used to jokes and humor even after this long, it had always been easier for her to just take things literally.

She blinked at the question though, brow creasing again, "It's only about five miles to town, and only about four of it in the river. We can make it there by dark and shouldn't have to make camp at all." Another pause, head tilting a little, because she had to remember that Carolyn wasn't necessarily as hardy as she was, "But if you need a rest, let me know, we'll rest for a while."

"Sorry man, I didn't mean to make you unsure or anything," Carolyn said apologetically.

"Oh. Well, that is good to know," she then scrunched up her face in deep thought. "Wait, how do you know that? I mean, we don't have a map or anything," she quickly added. "Nah, I'm cool. I just wasn't sure how far off we were, but that shouldn't take us too long," she said with a shrug. "You are like a genius too."

She shook her head, "No, not a genius, I came from there before, that is how I know how far away it is." Everything else was just relative, she had the ability to map things in her head, she mostly thought everyone did, though she was beginning to learn that this wasn't the case.

She moved carefully downriver, watching out for rocks hidden in the sandy bottom, "I also just have a good sense of direction. I had to when I was younger, it was very easy to get lost where Eric and I lived."

Thanks.

awerewolf_woof - 2015-07-28 03:11 (UTC) - Expand

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they are the hunters, we are the foxes - and we run

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Sorry for the delay, been really sick

No worries

Thanks.