Chapter Text
In a way, Rahne didn’t want to go home. Maybe it was the wolf in her that enjoyed sleeping under the stars. Or maybe it was that she was sleeping next to Dani Moonstar, breathing in her warm scent, listening to her steady heartbeat as she slept. No more nightmares. At least not since they’d started walking.
They had been walking for two days. Maybe Dr.Reyes had been right about the nearest town being twenty miles away. The first day was full of conversation. In light of what they’d just experienced at the hospital, under the dome, no one could maintain an air of cool indifference any longer. Dani had unintentionally and quite dramatically ripped everyone down to their barest of fears and insecurities. Somehow nothing felt too embarrassing after that. Well, nothing except Roberto’s fixation on Illyana which he didn’t seem quite ready to confess to just yet. Rahne herself wouldn’t have known if she couldn’t smell the heat on him when they were near. And none of them were very keen to be alone right now.
Rahne had been elevated to an almost leader like status out here in the woods. Illyana had initially taken the lead but soon enough it occurred to everyone, and lastly to her, that they had no idea where they were going. They needed clean water, shelter, indication of direction and suddenly her senses were very valuable.
The pantry and kitchen at the hospital had been surprisingly sparse. Sam had been the one primarily on culinary duty and he mentioned something about a truck which came sometimes in the early hours of the morning to deliver food. He had never seen the truck or any delivery people but in any case most of what they could take with them were snacks. Crackers, chips, a couple pieces of fruit. This suited Illyana just fine but the rest of them were uncomfortably hungry that first night. Again Rahne came through by hunting for a few animals to roast for dinner. The first night she could only catch a measly raccoon (which Illyana not-so-politely declined) but the second night she managed to catch two plump ducks by a river, and they ate well, all of them. Between grateful mouthfuls Illyana promised to never call her a dog again.
The walking was slow going. Rahne would be up front with Dani so they could talk. Roberto was up next, doing his best not to complain about the dirt, the bugs, the lack of cellphone service and just about everything else. Sam would traipse along behind him, still feeling the injuries he sustained during his time at the hospital. Sometimes Roberto would sigh dramatically and suggest they slow down and Rahne knew this was because he had been measuring how far Sam was falling behind and wanted to save the boy the indignity of asking. Illyana kept up the rear insisting she was uncomfortable with anyone following behind her.
Every few hours, Rahne would scout ahead as a wolf and would be hit each time with the impulse to run, just run until she found the next town. With her speed and stamina it’d be much faster than traveling with the group a few kilometers at a time. But each time as she reached a certain distance away she began to feel a need for companionship, pulling her back to Dani. And not just Dani if she was being honest. Roberto, Sam, and Illy had all started to fill her with a certain calm. It reminded her of being in church, images of saints and angels looking down from stained glass visages to remind her that she wasn’t alone. Her friends, yes she could call them friends now, were also powerful beings in their own right and would leap into the face of danger should it come for them again, pray as she did that it would not.
On the wind she could taste the chill of autumn on its way. And something else to; the sour smell of a road, a real one made of asphalt that would lead them back to civilization, back to…what exactly? What life did any of them truly have anymore? When the topic came up on the second day things all seemed to quiet and not the comfortable, companionable silence that had started to nestle in. Roberto was the first to brag about the spa retreat he was going to take but then Sam asked about seeing his family and the confidence fell apart. He mumbled something about “Yeah, of course” but no one believed it was something he really looked forward to. Dani wanted to stay with Rahne. “You’re all the family I have now.” Sam wanted to go back to his hometown. He knew he could never make it right but still wanted to apologize face to face with the families of the miners that died in the cave in. llyana had said that home was overrated and that she planned on hitting the road.
“Don’t any of you want to find out who exactly was keeping us there?”
Her call to action was left unanswered. Now that that place was long behind them it was easier to start to forget about it. The idea had unsettled Rahne so much that she had volunteered to go scouting again. The sun was beginning to set now and the evening was starting to drag the shadows beneath the trees. She felt eyes watching her from somewhere but smelled no other humans besides her. Rahne turned around and bounded off to rejoin the group. She needed Dani’s hands running through her bristled fur and to sit by Roberto’s fire while Illy sang sad lullabies in Russian. Tomorrow may spell the beginning of the end for her little mutant family but that could wait one more night under the stars.