Over and over again she cursed under her breath, growling at the pure foolishness it had taken to get her stuck in her current situation. The setting sun behind her cast shadows of red and gold on her fur and, had she been where she was supposed to be, she would have admired the effect. Instead, she groaned, she was stuck in a ravine, her nails barely scraping the edge every attempt she made to grip her way out.
Frustrated, she let out a roar, clawing at the sides of her prison in a rage, not noticing the new shadow thrown over her body.
She heard a chuckle escaped the shadow's lips, and that would be what caught her attention. Looking up, she glared at who would be so bold as to laugh at her in this state when she would get out and come after them.
He was a quite obviously a lion, and Freyja openly smirked at him. He would help her to get out, or there would be consequences. She made sure to vocalize these opinions out loud for all to hear. At first, he did nothing more than stare at her, almost unsure of whether or not he should do anything. But his judgement seemed to get the better of him, and the worst for Freyja. He disappeared. Not in the literal sense, but he did move out of view.
She roared and clawed at the sides of her containment, cursing him with a shrill voice at the top of her lungs for abandoning her when she needed help. Of course, her voice would be nothing to him, she thought violently. And so it was her anger that would only be fueled by her entrapment in the tiny hole that would be an inch or two away from freedom with her claws.
No sooner was she complaining, there was a way out? She looked around, agitated that whoever had been her way of escape wouldn't show themselves. She smirked, figuring it was someone morbidly grotesque who feared their own reflection. With a shrug, she took advantage of the escape route, using her claws to dig into the wood and out of her prison hold.
When she reached the top, she collapsed, making no effort to find her rescuer. If he or she was a true hero, they would stay for praise. Or, in her case, to be taken back into thralldom. She could use one to help her walk, at this point.
A flash of color and her gaze flitted to the trees to see a retreating figure, nothing more than a blur of gray and blonde to her tired eyes. Ugh, forget it. Whomever it was would most likely be scrawny and not worth the chase, as most hidden heroes in her mind would seem to be. Groaning, she shook out her fur and stood to her full, height, holding her head high should her rescuer still actually be nearby, which she doubted. Didn't stop her from holding her head high anyway. She looked around now, taking in what her surroundings had to offer her as some sign of how far she'd come.
There was no one around, not even a bird or bug to erase the silence that seemed to press against her. She instead looked to the ground and found her own trail, one which she had torn through to catch a preybeast.
A sigh. Right, he had gotten away in her hurry to catch him. Another silent curse of her luck, and she headed back the way she had come. Or, at least, the way she thought she had come. But everything looked the same, no matter which way she turned. And the trail she followed was so muddled and distraught, how was she to know she was even following the right one?
A flash of color and she looked up. Had she been seeing things? She raced in the direction the color had gone, only to see another, and another; one would be a leg, then a tail. Was she surrounded by creatures that she knew nothing about? A normal lion or lioness would be in a panic, but not Freyja. She followed whomever it was, the features on her face becoming hostile the longer it took, bloodlust in her eyes. Was this creature only here to toy with her, to have her running in circles when she was trying to find a way back to her group?
It was then that she heard it; a familiar shout. She paused mid-step, flicking her ears forward to catch the sound again. It was her group, she was sure of it. Breaking through a patch of vines, she came nose-to-nose with a Stormborn lion, the look on his face just as enraged as her own. He threw a stream of curses at her, bringing up a tale of the Captain throwing a fit that a lioness would, of course, be the one to get lost on such a simple trip to chase herds closer to home. She was quick to retort, however, that even if she was the cost of time, the lion himself wouldn't even be on this little outing had their captain known of what he did within their own pride.
And with that, she had won, the guilty look that crossed his face only proving that her bluff had been anything but one. And it would be this lion who defended her excursion at getting lost, covering for her or risk having his throat torn out for doing things that Freyja herself had no idea of. Of course, he wouldn't know that until they reached home, and by then it would be far too late.
As they slept that night, the cruel, mocking grin plastered on Freyja's face would never stop torturing the lion who lay mere feet away, sweating himself to sleep. Or, at least, he would try his hardest to. Freyja wasn't going to make it easy in the slightest.
[1002]
