Closed RP Hold My Hand (It’s A Long Way Down)

[Katpride]

Adelyn had been forced to wait for the sun to set. There was simply no way she would have been able to sneak through the streets of Pittsburgh in broad daylight without her gloves and boots, even without her foot being injured. It was too risky.

She had taken the time during her long wait to tear some fabric from her shirt and bandage her paw as best she could. It was a good thing she didn’t mind blood; there sure was a lot of it, even after she stopped actively bleeding. She just had to distance herself from the fact that it was her blood, and once she figured that out her hands were a lot steadier. Even so, the longer she waited the more the ache seemed to radiate, growing less and less ignorable until it was like a second heartbeat, flaring with every minute shift and making her dizzy.

So, even though the sun had only barely passed the horizon, here she was, lowering herself out of her tree-perch as carefully as she could. This wasn’t her first tree, of course, and nowhere near the clearing where she was shot; she had relocated as close to the treeline as she dared to go many hours ago. Still, it seemed to take twice as long to negotiate a way down as it had to scale the tree earlier.

She kept having to pause and regain her bearings, even when she didn’t put any weight on her foot. Getting home was going to be a nightmare. But she couldn’t afford to think too far ahead. She got to the ground, somehow, and started walking. It was just one step and then another, using the surrounding trees for support.

All too soon, she reached for the next tree and found nothing. She had reached the edge of the park. There was a small stretch of grass between her and the sidewalk, and a lot of sidewalk between her and her grandparents. Breathing out a carefully controlled breath, she considered the grass for a long moment. Then, she carefully levered her foot out in front of her, and tried to take a step.

Her knee buckled, her claws and fingernails scoring short gouges in the tree as she caught herself, pulling her leg back. The noise that left her throat was somewhere between a scream and a hiss, rough and quickly cut off.

There were tears in her eyes, and she let them fall as she pulled herself behind the tree, resting her back against it. She was at least out of sight from the road, if no one was looking too closely. She could take a minute, or a few minutes, and think a little more about her next move. If only she could think clearly, for just a moment, without being in so much pain.

The Shift seemed to sit uneasily under her skin, responding to her distress with a wave of itchiness that felt almost as though it was trying to offer her a new form, but she pushed it aside. There weren’t any animals that didn’t feel pain, she was fairly sure, and it would be a waste to throw away her new form so soon. Especially if she ended up in something over-specialized again. She didn’t want to go back to anything cold-blooded, not for the rest of the winter at the very least.

She just had to figure it out. She would figure it out, and she would get home, and everything would be fine. Growling to herself, she put her head in her hands and tried to think.

 

[Phoenix]

“Addy?”

Sam wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand quickly, trying to disguise her tear stained and flushed face as best as she could. She shuddered a bit as she leaned forward from where she was sitting leaning against a tree. There has been a strange cry, and then soft growling, but she was fairly confident the shape she had just seen trying to leave the trees a few yards away was none other than Adelyn.

Pushing herself up and walking over that direction, Sam called out again. “Addy?”

She used the sleeve of her dress to quickly wipe away any residual signs of tears from her face as she tried to put a smile on. Why Adelyn was out this late in the park in the beginning of January, especially with her current reptilian shift, she had no idea. Maybe she had come out for groceries and was taking a cut through the park? She rounded the last tree between them, and sure enough, Adelyn was sitting there, leaning against a tree.

It took Sam a full second before her smile faded, and she closed the distance between them. “Adelyn! What happened to you?”

The girl was missing her gloves and shoes, and wrapped around one foot was a makeshift bandage that was soaked in blood. Sam felt her pulse in her head, felt her heartbeat radiate painfully as she crouched down next to her. She froze for just a millisecond, then she started to kick into planning. She was going to have to figure out how to get Adelyn to her car three blocks down the street. Unseen. Carrying her would be no issue for Sam, but the fastest route was the sidewalk, and there were still cars and people out.

Sam had left the house in nothing but her dress and boots, and something told her that her size six shoes weren’t going to fit Adelyn no matter how hard they tried. She had nothing to cover her with. All the tension and anxiety snapped back into place, redirected toward the current situation. Todd being missing for a week wasn’t forgotten, but it was quickly placed on a shelf to address later. She needed to figure this out, and quick. Adelyn needed first aid. She wouldn’t know how bad it was until she got those bandages off.​

 

[Katpride]

Her head was pounding, and even with her back against the tree she felt like the world was tilting under her, but stubbornly Adelyn clung on. She had gotten herself into this mess, getting too complacent and taking off her leathers in daylight, and she would get herself out of it. Heaven help anyone who tried to come between her and home, she thought, more than a little angry. With herself, and with the world, and with the way things were.

So wrapped up in herself, she had stopped paying attention to the sounds around her. When a woman’s voice - half-familiar, too close, too close, how didn’t she notice? - startled her, she jumped, sending a new shock of pain through her injured foot. Half out of her mind from the stress of the day, she couldn’t contain the instincts, still too sharp and not yet worn-in, that took over her.

The sound that left her throat was more of a hiss than she thought she should be capable of, but it was still missing the rumbling growl that some part of her thought should be there. Eyes squinted almost shut and still blurry with tears, she lashed out blindly, her claws already bared and covered in dried blood not her own. She was too close to the street to scream, some still-rational part of her mind insisted, and so instead she bared her teeth, her breath coming too quickly through the gaps.

Some part of her was shocked by the violence of her own body, of how easily it came to her, but that part was small and too easily drowned. Survival would always speak louder. She would protect herself. She would protect her family. She would brook no alternative.

It was all she knew, all she could hold in her mind. She would get back to her family.

 

[Phoenix]

The sound that came from Adelyn’s lips was one that Sam had never heard before. A clawed hand swiped out at her, catching the sleeve of her dress and shredding it. Thankfully, she pulled her arm back with just enough time to avoid a deep scratch down her arm. It gave her pause, and she fully knelt on her knees, making herself smaller than the younger girl. She made herself as unthreatening as she possibly could, curling her shoulders forward and in so that her body was as small as she could make it. She smiled softly, keeping her teeth covered by her lips, and slowly lifted a hand and extended it, almost like one might with a scared dog or cat. Because that’s what she was right now. A scared animal.

“Adelyn, it’s me. It’s Samantha Walsh. I’m your friend, remember? You’re safe now.”

The girl’s heartbeat was racing through Sam’s veins now, and her own responded in kind, picking up despite her attempts to keep it even and slow. She took a deep breath to try and suppress the energy that wanted to race through her. It wouldn’t do Addy any good if she lost her head right now. The girl needed someone she could trust, someone she could relax in front of. Sam was no Todd– she felt a blade stab her through the stomach at the mere thought of him– and she didn’t have that connection to Adelyn that he did. But she was still her friend. She was still like a younger sister to Sam.

Surely that would be enough.

At least, she hoped it would be enough.

She swallowed softly and opened her hand wide, all her motions slow and smooth. She searched Adelyn’s scared face, searched through the animal fear to try and find the girl who she knew was in there. Sam hummed softly, letting her words take on an almost musical tone as she spoke again, “Come on, Adelyn. Breathe and relax. You’re safe here. I won’t hurt you.”​