
Bay had been stewing in his thoughts, his mind trying to process what had happened. He had been, anyway, until Jynx plowed into him. She was screaming, crying, yelling at him; yelling words he didn't fully understand at first. He blinked stupidly as she broke down and then regained control of her anger, stepping gingerly off his body. He stood up quickly and shook the dust and grime from his fur, suddenly hyper aware of the string his reputation hung on every time he lost a fight. He turned to growl at the girl, but she had run off to lay with the store owner's rotting body. Why? He had no idea, but he didn't yell after her. He pitied her in a way.
She was right, though. What was he doing, sitting there, drawing a blank? Bay stood and shook himself again, puffing out to his full size. Looking out across the devastated streets, he couldn't see anything that looked hopeful, but he was the kind of guy who liked to take charge. He had to try, at least.
He set of digging through the rubble. He quickly abandoned the kennels after overturning the front half of one of the store dachshunds, but refused to give up. He scratched at the piles of concrete and rebar slowly, but with purpose, trying to find anything that reminded him of the world he used to know.
Then Alatea howled. That sound tore right through him. It was beautiful but sad, and if he didn't know better, he'd call it the most hallowing sound he'd ever heard. But this Alatea girl... she had herself together. She called out to the group, trying to rally them into action, and ran off into the dust. He liked the way she worked.
Still, no one seemed to want to go with her; they were still in a state of shock. Bay made a decision to follow her, pulling his face into a frown of concentration as he bounded over to the spot where she had disappeared. "She's right, you know." he said to the group, trying to imitate Alatea's seeming leadership. "We're not gonna get anywhere by sitting around on our asses, so we might as well follow her." He tried to get some sort of response from the group, but no one seemed to listen. He ended up making eye contact with only one other dog in the vicinity, King. Bay liked him a lot; they were similar. They understood each other. "She's right, you know," he said again, this time more quietly, and followed the female into the unknown.
XXXXX
Azalea was lost. Not in mind or in spirit, but actually physically lost. She had always wanted to run through the city by herself, but not like this. She had never imagined it would be this complex, and as she ran though the labyrinth of fallen buildings and overturned cars, all she wanted was the kennel owner. She wanted him to be next to her again, to call her name, to feed her. Her memories were a cold reminder of who's blood it was that stained her paws.
But after seeing his body, she wanted nothing more than to be as far away as possible, so she ran on as far as she could. She didn't make it very far, though; her soft paws were quickly cut by the glass that littered the streets and her body wasn't used to this kind of running. She collapsed and slid under a car not a block away from the pet store, cold, alone, and in pain for the first time in her life.
((Blegh, I wrote a lot on Bay there but I kind of neglected Azalea . I'll have to catch up with her later XD))