the whole ‘being dead’ thing [joiners]

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

The poor reception in Tanglewoods bothered Ninazu far more than she cared to admit; in such sorry states with so many enemies between the two of them, there hardly seemed any options left at all. The lioness scoffed at the idea of joining the Blackguard – when they were the Rosebloods, one of them had sacrificed her, after all – but they needed to try somewhere. At least the Blackguard didn’t have too many faces that would remember the violence the Pitt threw at them when Ninazu reigned. Even the fact they moved territories made her pleased, given the circumstances; no matter how much her wounds hurt and itched, it was a good sign.

Still thinking on these matters as the two of them came to the Blackguard’s border, the lioness sighed as Stryker dropped to a dead lump. Near-dead lump, she amended. Even with all the ground the two covered, their wounds were healing well – but if he rolled around in anything dirty, she’d need to change the bandages on him. And if the Blackguard were hostile… well, they didn’t have the supplies to do that. “Don’t let the snow melt on your bandages,” she cautioned him, fire-tip tail lashing. She’d already lost the bandages on the wounds lower than her shoulders, due to the snow and her fire’s pesky inclination to slide across her fur on its own whims.

© MADI