fandomtownies | The beach, Wednesday morning

Firekeeper's restlessness had nothing to do with nightmares- though that was not an entirely unfamiliar problem- and more to do with being a wolf. So she'd challenged Blind Seer to a race that morning. He was, as usual, winning, but she didn't mind terribly.

"Dinah, hello," Firekeeper called as she caught sight of the other girl. Blind Seer, who'd bolted past, stopped and circled back.

"Hey!" People she was glad to see! Who hadn't been crazy-weird in another world last week! Dinah collapsed to her knees to offer Blind Seer a hug, and beamed at Firekeeper. "Long time, no see. Great day, hunh?"

Blind Seer's response was to offer a happy lick of Dinah's face in greeting. "Good for running," Firekeeper agreed. "Even if four legs mean he always win race," she nodded at Blind Seer.

"Still fun to try. And you get to go all-out," Dinah said, giggling at the face lick and rubbing behind Blind Seer's ears in gratitude. "Can I join you on the attempt too? I'm feeling really restless this morning."

Firekeeper shared a glance with Blind Seer. "You is welcome to," she translated for Dinah. "But he warn you he plan on leaving us far behind," she rolled her eyes at him. Beating Blind Seer wasn't quite possible, so the challenge was more about seeing how much further he could get ahead.

"Awesome." Dinah said, getting to her feet, still ruffling Blind Seer's fur. "And you wait, buddy, we're going to do better than you expect. Our four feet against your four feet." She grinned at Firekeeper. "Ready?"

"Ready," she agreed with a nod. Blind Seer's tail wagged in response to the challenge.

[ooc: though Iiiii must head out for work, sadly.]

"Go!" Dinah took off down the beach as fast as she could, wind in her face, sun on her skin, legs pumping to try and keep up with the wolf. Both wolves.

[byeeee for now!]

Blind Seer was off like a shot, easily putting several paces of distance between himself and those unfortunate enough to only have two legs. Firekeeper was grinning as she followed, though.

Dinah was laughing for a few paces, then just grinning and enjoying the race, concentrating on trying to catch up to Blind Seer, hopeless as that was. Her feet sank into the sand, and she picked up speed, but still couldn't match him, and turned to her head to see Firekeeper next to her, pulling ahead. "Faster!"

"We will catch!" Firekeeper encouraged Dinah. They probably wouldn't, no, but it was nice to entertain the thought, however briefly.

"Any... second... now!" Dinah said, then howled. Okay, not so smart, that left her less breath, but still. Fun!

It was a good howl! Firekeeper picked up on it, and down the beach a ways, Blind Seer added his own voice before flopping down on the sand near the rock he and Firekeeper had picked earlier as the end point for their race.

Dinah was giggling and staggering by the time she reached the rock, and dropped to her knees near Blind Seer, squinting over at Firekeeper. "Needed that." She let her head fall back on her neck with a sigh. "Not being cooped up is awesome."

Firekeeper nodded in agreement. "Is why sometimes we sleep outside. Inside 'safe' maybe, but outside mean freedom."

"I'd like to do that," Dinah realized. "Not be afraid of the dark," she said, quieter. "There's nothing to fear here."

"Is less to fear, here, than most places," Firekeeper felt compelled to say. Because she'd never relax her guard enough to think that nothing bad could possibly happen. "Dark is when wolves do best hunting. I learn not to fear it, because to fear it is to die," she shrugged.

"Yeah." Dinah remembered wandering the night, terrified of everything in it and herself as well. And having to put that aside to just keep going. "Maybe, sometime soon? You think?" She gave Blind Seer a hopeful look, and reached over to rub behind his ears, then looked at Firekeeper. "Sleep on the roof, or out somewhere else? Maybe?"

"Would like," Firekeeper agreed, watching with amusement as Blind Seer tilted his head into the touch. Total schmooze. Not that she knew what the word 'schmooze' meant. "You choose time, and we be there with you. To help you not fear night."

"Thanks, guys." Dinah grinned at them both. "You rock." She took a breath. Something to do. Awesome.

"Of course," Firekeeper grinned back, now familiar with the meaning of the slang term 'rock'. "Wolves is good at such."

Later in the morning, after Survival Class, Francine -- well, she wasn't out for a run, please. But a walk seemed like it could be a thing. She didn't know if it would clear her head, but if nothing else the beach was pretty and smelled good.

"Hey," she called with a wave when she saw Dinah.

"Hey!" Dinah said, slowing down to join her, and checking her pulse as she walked. "Gorgeous weather, hunh?" She tilted her head to the sun, and breathed in. "Loving it."

"It's nice. The beach smells nice when it's like this." Francine eyed the pulse-taking with a little interest, a little concern. "Are you okay?"

"MMmm?" Dinah took a breath, then said, "Yeah. Just. Running a lot. Time for a cool-down. Don't want to ... wear myself out." Except for how that would be totally okay with her, really.

"No more comas," Francine said, shaking a finger, though it fell a little flat even to her own ears. "That's going on the Big List Of Things People Francine Cares About Aren't Allowed To Do."

Dinah shook her finger back at her, smile a little guilty. "Wasn't planning it. But no zombies for you, if no comas for me." She sobered a little, and asked, "Did you leave me Snoopy?" Because really, she couldn't see Ghanima doing that, or anyone else.

Francine smiled. "You looked like you needed him more than I did."

"I really, really did," Dinah admitted. "It was nice to come back to here, and have something to hang onto right away." Especially after she quit crying all over Ghanima. She looked a little embarrassed, and reminded herself to return Augustus too. "Thanks."

"It was either you or Arthur," Francine said with a small grin. "And he'd have kicked Snoopy out of bed even in his sleep."

"He so would have," Dinah had to agree. "And I did need him more." Arthur ended up human. Which while was still a terrible place to be human, still didn't compare. She pointed to Francine's hair. "You were going to tell me what was up with that?"

Francine stuck her hands in her pockets and just watched her feet for a second, cork-soled sandals leaving divots in the sand. "You remember how people felt things, early in the week?"

"Yeah. It was brief, but creepy." Dinah sighed. "I would've run the other way, if I'd known what it meant." She looked sideways at Francine. "Why?"

She took a breath, not a fan of the retelling, or of wondering what it meant. "Thursday night, it happened again for me. Only not so brief and really, really awful."

"Oh, God, I'm sorry." Dinah frowned, stopping in place to study Francine. "And that happened to your hair? Okay, it still looks cool but I'm all worried now."

Francine nodded. "I didn't fall asleep or anything, like you guys. I was just talking to Katchoo one minute, and the next... it was like I was over there where you were, but still here, too. I could see and hear and touch, even." Katchoo, and then not. Just air and dust.. "It was that real."

Unless it hadn't been, Francine supposed. Unless she'd imagined it because weird stuff was happening to everybody else. She had a brief odd surge of hope that that was the case, since it would be so much better than if it had really happened, somewhere.

"God. That's-- I didn't want anyone else to see that place," Dinah said, her voice dropping. "I'm sorry you did. Whatever it was you saw." She looked at Francine. "Did you recognize anything?" She hoped not. She really really did.

"Katchoo." There was sand between her toes now. Happened when you wore sandals in the sand. Hazards of the job. Gritting as she walked. "She was ... like you were."

"Oh, Francine." Dinah reached out for her arm, peering at her face. "You shouldn't have had to see that. At all." She remembered witnessing what happened to Priestly, being so glad she didn't run into Tony there, and hurt for her.

She was never going to say it if she didn't say it simply and without looking anywhere that might have eyes looking back. "We killed her."

Dinah closed her eyes, aching, then reached out to put an arm around Francine.

'Cause there was nothing to say to make that better. No.

Francine leaned her head over, because shoulders... yeah, shoulders were good. "Unless it wasn't real?" And yeah, a little too hopeful there. "I don't have powers like you, and I wasn't falling asleep like other people."

"I don't know," Dinah said softly. "I didn't see her there?" She bit her lip, giving Francine a squeeze. "It might not be." She almost said, 'you could ask Arthur' and then bit her tongue. Arthur wouldn't lie well, if he knew anything bad. Better not to know, this time.

Oh Dinah. Not your fault you didn't know to ask who we were.

"Maybe," Francine said, but she wasn't really agreeing. Sand between her toes.

The beach, Wednesday morning

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