leona (pea) wrote in fableless, @ 2016-12-05 21:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log/thread, - npc, - wpd, leona quinn, tulio del bosque |
WHO: Sheriff Finnigan, Tulio del Bosque, Leona Quinn, and Elena Daniels.
WHAT: Finny and Tulio pair up to find Leona and Elena!
WHEN: Late Monday Night / Early Tuesday Morning.
WHERE: On the road & Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
WARNING/RATING: None!
“Take the five north. I’ll keep trying.” “Ay. You just let me know.” Ryan jerked the wheel, heavy foot pressing harder on the gas as they took the onramp to the five. “Keep an eye out for a gas station off the Freeway, boyo. Coffee too, maybe.” “Coffee,” came Tulio’s mumble of agreement, and that was answer enough. “All I see is snow, Ryan. Snow, and trees.” “Can yeh tell what kind of trees, lad?” “Evergreen — likely fir. They seem endless.” “It’s getting late. Do you want to switch over?” Ryan only grunted, leaning forward a little as he drove on. “Washington state, I’m sure of it now.” At this, Ryan finally looked for a place to pull over so that Tulio could take the wheel. Ryan snored from the passenger’s seat, his head rolled against the window. Next to him, Tulio sipped at his coffee, and kept his eyes on the road. “What music is this, then?” “A pair of guitarists, Rodrigo y Gabriela. I usually put them on while I work. Just for some background noise.” A generous pause before, gruffly, “I like it.” “Here. She’s — here, in this area.” The pen scratched a large circle around a shaded region of the map. “It’s marked as a national forest.” “Ay. We’ll have to to take some of this on foot.” “We’re close.” Ryan’s eyes narrowed with resolve as he pressed forward, leaving behind large footprints in his wake. The spade struck the ground without resolve. Her fingers were bruised and cut, but that was fifth to the exhaustion. To the hunger. To the cold. To the way she longed for Nate and missed her sister, but in a way that was nostalgic rather than present. She remembered the times they had, but would no longer. She remembered how Nate smelled, and it made her sad to think of the inevitability that he would forget the same of her. She missed Amara and Kae and (selfishly. Very selfishly), wished that they were still near her so that she might have some sense of camaraderie rather than the pair of eyes that bore into her from above the hole she had made. Now more than ever-- and maybe because it was literally, she felt the presence of time weighing her down. She could feel the ticking of a clock like bass in her chest. It grew louder as she dug. “Elena Daniels!” A gruff, deep baritone brogue called out, though it was muffled by the thick of the snow. Leona looked up, but could only see a shocked Elena from her view in the pit. A scared looking Elena. A backpedalling Elena, who broke into a sprint until she was no longer in view. “Stop! Freeze!” The same rough voice came. Leona shuddered, her breaths short and hard. She waited a second. Two. Three. She dropped the shovel. She turned around, her shaky legs trying to push her up and off the ground, bleeding and cracked hands scrambling and scratching at the snowy ledge so that she could try to pull herself out of the hole that, once she found what she was being made to look for, would surely be her grave. “Here,” came the voice out of nowhere, and with it the hand, extended toward her. Tulio knelt in the snow, braced on the edge of the pit, his eyebrows knit together with worry. When he saw the state of her hands his frown deepened, until it looked like it might never leave. “Leona,” he said, voice soothing, but it carried, “we need to get you out and to the car… we’re going to take you home. Can you stand?” “T-t--t--” His name didn’t make it through her chattering teeth. The exhaustion carried the scene through a camera lens. He was a Prince. He wasn’t her Prince, but here he was, saddled over white snow. She hadn’t realized she had withdrawn her hand back towards her until her arm ached to lift it again, stickied hand reaching out for his as she tried to help pull herself out from the hole. “I d- don’t--” The way her legs shook and wobbled and the way she sagged spoke where she could not. Crushed snow made the ground slippery, and Tulio couldn’t strain far enough to reach her. After a moment, his arm receded. Leona half on the ground, the pit which looked deeper than he was tall, the shovel he could make out at the bottom — he was sure there had to be a better idea than the only thing that was coming to mind, but he had no heroic acts of strength up his sleeve. “I’m going to jump in and help you out from there, Leona,” he was telling himself the plan as much as he was her, uncertainty and determination both clear in his voice, “so don’t be frightened if I make a loud noise…” and with a final glance about, Tulio half-jumped, half-slid down the edge of the pit, stumbling as he landed and doing his best not to jostle her. She half walked (mostly stumbled) into Tulio. She didn’t lift her arms to hug him, but instead her head met his shoulder with a solid thunk. His hand felt burning hot as it pressed against her arm; he exhaled, slowly, realizing how cold she was. Carefully, he guided her to the side of the pit, where she clawed at the snow and the ground underneath it with the same kind of clumsiness that was borne of exhaustion. He removed his thick scarf and wrapped it around her like a shawl. “You need to stand up now, okay?” He picked up her hands, warming them while avoiding as best as he could the sores, scrapes and bleeding spots. “I’ll help you, though this may not be graceful.” “Okay,” she croaked, wincing at the sound of her own voice. Gripping each other’s arms, they had her almost up before her feet slid against the snow and she fell once more. Tulio’s heart ached merely to look at her, there, like she was giving up, or had given up already before they found her. Sliding one arm behind her back, and another under her knees, he picked her up himself, near slipping a little himself as he straightened. If she didn’t have the strength to get herself out, there wasn’t much choice left. “I’m — very sorry,” he told her, and then with all the strength he could muster he tossed her out of the pit. She was airborne for a brief moment, her dirty (almost brunette-looking) hair flying without the grace movies and animes painted as gravity brought her down hard. Although she would have liked to make a bed of the snow she was now laying in, instead she resolutely rolled onto her stomach and peered down into the hole she had helped create. Despite the fact that her arms throbbed with the continuous sound of ticking coming from beneath their feet, she extended her arm down at Tulio. As if she could pull him out. He took it anyway, though his feet digging into the side of the pit and his other arm pressed against the ground did most of the work. Then they were both free, breath coming hard and visible in the cold air, the Sheriff and Elena still not in sight. “Thank you,” he said, and then, “We should get moving. Is there anything of yours here?” Leona didn’t want anything of hers that was here. … But decided actually saying as much would make for grim conversation. So instead, she shook her head quietly. Her hands grappled at him again, her fingers gently tugging on the high of his pants, and then on his arm as she tried to use him to pull herself up. She was tired of feeling helpless. OOC: Finnigan will be driving back with Elena in his car after speaking with local authorities. He called the station and got MILO WATNEY on the phone. He would have told them that both Elena and Leona have been found. He will tell them to notify their families before it gets out there. He will also tell them to putting together evidence for kidnapping charges for Elena Daniels. Finnigan and Elena will be arriving back at the station early Tuesday morning. Tulio and Leona will be arriving that evening, as they well need to rent a car; Finnigan wasn’t about to put Leona in the same car as Elena. |