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Grumble. Grumblegrumble.

Echo wasn't feeling too well. She had tried fish, and it seemed the meat didn't exactly agree with her stomach. Which was really horrible for her, for she knew that she had to be constantly on the move if she had ever wanted to really stay safe. A moving target is always the hardest to pin and hit. But now, with her upset stomach, it seemed that she couldn't walk two feet without so much as keeling over. The movement swished about the remains of her meal inside of her delicate stomach, and she felt as if the stuff would resurface and push its way out of her mouth.

Not pleasant. Not in the very darn least.

Whining now, the female stopped at a rather large tree that seemed to be hollowed out. Glancing about, she made sure that she was indeed alone. She sniffed the air. Only a stale scent was passed on to her. Feeling only a little safe, she entered the hollow cave inside the tree.

Grumble.

She whined and rolled onto her side, feeling that if she curled up her meal would certainly show itself again. Within a few moments, it seemed, though it was really more like an hour, Echo was sleeping, though tossing and turning with nightmares.

Echo tossed and turned, tossed and turned. Her dreams haunted her, and there were ghostly thoughts running about her mind. It was all hard to make out, it was all crowding her brain and making her sweat.

But then suddenly she heard a voice. Slightly familiar, deep, mostly belonging to a male. Yet in her sleep it registered as danger, and an alarm went off inside of her head. Suddenly she was leaping to her paws, eyes wide and wild. A second later, however, she noticed Raz and immediately calmed herself. She hadn't exactly recognized him, being drowsy and all, but then again she hadn't thought his stance was aggressive at a first glance.

"Dreams unhappy.." she murmured, her eyes half-lidded as she stood there, head hanging low. It was obvious she was tired and not all there.

A moment later she recognized him. The male that her mother had found her with!! The one she hadn't even learned the name of. It saddened her to think that she had actually gotten in a lot of trouble for playing chase with a wolf. How bad was that? It wasn't like they were actually doing anything harmful or whatever.. they had only been playing! Besides, Echo was smarter than that.

"Not helpfulhelpful. Wrong." She nodded her head, sinking down to the ground on her soft underbelly. Something was indeed wrong. If only she could tell him exactly what it was. But that darn curse!!!

She whined.

"No mother... strayed away, ran away..." she whispered, her eyes closed now though her head still bobbed in the air, ears slightly flicked forward. She knew what he was doing as well, and went along with it. And it seemed that Raz had done a pretty good job as far as options went.. he had gotten them down almost exactly.

"Alone now," she repeated, though she hated to do so. Echo didn't want to be alone, she didn't want to be out on her own. She couldn't hunt for herself, defend herself. It was a hard life by herself, and she didn't like it one bit. And, for a split second, she didn't enjoy him reminding her of it. Suddenly her eyes opened and she glanced sharply at him. He had been part of the reason she had ran off. Because her mother had found her with him, she had severely punished her, causing the runt to run away. And so here she was.

Snorting slightly, she rose to her paws and began to walk off. Right now all she wanted to do was be left alone, to slowly die or something.

"Not my fault!" she called back, adding a bit of emphasis on the word my. Indeed, it hadn't been her fault. Hadn't Raz stumbled upon her? And it had only been her rotten luck that had led her mother to the exact area that they were playing chase in.

Then she suddenly whirled back to face him, her eyes brimmed to the top with sadness. "Go back?!" she squeaked, sinking down to her belly again against the tree. Echo couldn't go back. She probably never would. Kal and Cataylyst weren't exactly inviting at the moment, and they were most likely happy to be rid of an annoying burden like herself.

"Don't want to." Can't, was really what she wanted to say. But of course she simply couldn't with her curse. "Choices," she huffed, resting her head on her paws now.

None of it seemed worth it now. Not even being out here, away from her parents.

Echo shook her head. This male was confusing her now, her head to muddy and cloudy to quite think straight. So she wuffed and plopped down again, bringing her tail directly over her nose to cover her face. She then mumbled and whined, feeling very much like it would probably be best to die.

Echo's ears perked only slightly when he offered to stay. She had sort of thought that he would do that, but then, she had never thought how she would answer or what she would say.. or at least attempt to say. And this time around she was no better. Her mother would be furious, but her mother wasn't here. Yet still, she knew that some how or another Kal would find out. She had eyes in the back of her horns.

Lifting her head from her paws and out of the cover of her tail, the female tilted her head at him, as if she wasn't at all sure whether Raz was serious or not. Looking at him, though, he seemed serious enough.

Finally she decided, twitching her tail slightly. "Stay." If only for a little while.