location: the wilds outside of the dusk city capital for: caelia | @ofethos character: vatavios "vaati" acheson
from the moment he realized that he was not within the capital, he felt the unyielding drive to find his family and ensure that they were all right, of course -- the issue was, he didn't know how to characterize his brother's future child. were they family? even if they weren't named or claimed, did he have a responsibility to them? it didn't matter in that exact moment because vaati wasn't sure how he would go about finding them. the dim light may have suited his owl form, but without being able to see through both eyes, his depth perception was sharply limited. had he been a fae prone to falling to his tempers, he would have raged. instead, he grabbed a long stick that his hand could fit around comfortably, one that came nearly to his shoulder, and he used to test the ground in front of him in case there were traps.
never underestimate the value of a 10 foot pole... even if this was four and a half feet shorter than ten feet ... it'd do the job.
yet, what he wasn't expecting was for that same pole to hit against a woman who appeared to be unconscious on the ground. he knelt down and hesitated for a moment. he had fallen out of the habit of wearing his gloves, but he carried them with him just the same. he put them on before he shook her. "wake up ... if i have to carry you..." he didn't finish the sentence because he didn't have to carry her, and he was prepared to leave her if she didn't wake up. the last thing he wanted was to be found carrying a corpse.