It wasn't until the afternoon that the expedition party from Grey Hills found un-watered down tracks of Lidiya and Kodak.

Correction - they found Lidiya's scent, as they couldn't really recognize Kodak's up to that point. Her scent was entwined with another, unfamiliar scent to them. Which they (rightly) assumed was Kodak.

And so they followed it. About a day's worth of travel behind, but they felt like they were the saviours. The ones who would liberate one of their females from a male that had entranced her. They had no idea that the two of them didn't want to be saved.

~

Lidiya had no idea that they were being chased by a group with such a drive. She was just enjoying herself with Kodak. Which, she privately admitted, she probably was taking too much liberties with. And being far too soft with.

By the afternoon, she was comfortable in Kodak's presence. Far more than she had earlier - in fact, this was still technically the first day they had had together solely in one another's company. Again, something else that Lidiya didn't want to think about.

Lidiya, contrary to what Kodak had believed, hadn't actually picked a route towards another pack. She had just picked the exact same direction they had run last night.

Away. Away from the expedition party of her ex-pack, which was honestly closer than she thought it was.

Just a straight line, away. She hadn't had much of a plan otherwise - she'd only occasionally venture out into this region of land.

But no matter what they had found, she had felt... safe, in the company of Kodak. That he'd be able to help deal with anything.

Except for the expedition party that seemed to be tracking them.

The late autumn air brought a chill to the wind, signalling the onset of winter soon, and Lidiya was inwardly glad of it as she began heating up inside her fur coat - the late autumn chill helped her deal with it.

On the downside, it also helped the team of trackers behind them.

The afternoon had cleared up, and while it was still muddy on the floor, Kodak and herself had managed to clean of the majority of the mud on their bodies. And no here they were, jogging away, still in a relatively straight line, not really talking but just moving away from the "rescue" party that was slowly creeping closer.

Lidiya nodded in assent. "Surely there's a suitable overhang somewhere here." Her legs were beyond tired, and despite having woken up refreshed and relaxed (not partly because of Kodak's scent), she still looked around, trying to help him.

Truth to be told, she wasn't feeling that well. Her vision wasn't that focused anymore. She just wanted to - she just wanted to lie down and rest.

Looking around, but not really seeing mush, essentially at that point she just followed Kodak as he went across the rocky terrain. It had been getting a bit steeper for a while - something that she had noticed as the increased strain on her legs as they went up the incline - but she kept going, unwilling to stop and face those who were doubtlessly pursuing them - or leave Kodak running on ahead.

All she could really wish for was that the overhang that Kodak would find - and she already had associated whatever they were finding with Kodak, as even she admitted she was practically useless at the moment - would be bigger than the one they'd used last night. Or maybe not. But Kodak would prefer it to be bigger, at least.

Truth to be told, she was probably on her last legs - literally half-asleep while still standing, as Kodak, somehow still appearing strong and unaffected by the fact they had been running all day - combed the rather rocky gorund for some overhang that they could shelter under.

Lidiya wagged her tail slightly. Amicably, she wandered into the abandoned bear den that indented itself into the rocky ground. Too tired to really say anything, she barely mumbled out a few words.

"Yeah... this will do." Unintentionally, she placed herself in such a way that she was nowhere near the edge of the bear den. Kodak could still get into the den comfortably, but they'd still be rather close throughout the entire night.

Lidiya did not care. In fact, she was barely conscious, well aware the sun was rather low and that the was dead tired. She didn't even remember (or bother) to check Kodak's wounds before she laid down.

"... thanks, Kodak." She was vaguely aware of saying exactly that as she curled up into a tighter ball and sleep began to claim her, with Kodak's scent reaching her nose yet again - the scent that she had smelt for the entirety of the night before, and, apprently, this night too.

She wasn't sure why she even had said the last two words. In fact, she wouldn't even remember saying it the next morning. But she knew they were true.

And with that, she fell asleep.

Lidiya woke up really early the next morning needing to pee. Quite badly.

The sun hadn't yet risen, and she felt energized - and... odd. Nevertheless, she quietly scampered away from the sleeping form of Kodak to go to a nearby tree and relieve herself quickly.

She peed quite a bit back at the tree. In fact, she doubted that she'd ever had that much at one go.

Trotting back to the bear's den where Kodak was still solidly asleep, the odd thing kept bugging her. For one, she could definitely smell her scent a lot stronger now. That was unusual - she usually didn't smell her own scent, but now here it was, magnified for some odd reason.

Secondly, it was still dark and she just didn't want to sleep. She curled up, right next to Kodak yet again, but... she just couldn't sleep. She couldn't even remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night and had to go pee.

It was about a quarter of an hour later, restlessly shifting despite she was trying to go back to sleep, and completely absorbed in Kodak's scent - which seemed to enarmour her more now than it did yesterday, even when she was practically sleeping on top of him - when a horrible thought came into her head.

There was no way- it was barely early winter. There couldn't be any chance.

Could there?

Abandoning her attempt to sleep - she was far too restless - she prowled back towards the spot where she had relieved herself. Fast enough to indicate urgency, but slow enough that she didn't look upset, or woke Kodak in any way.

It was still dark, yet Lidiya was able to clearly follow her own scent exactly to where she was earlier. Usually she couldn't even smell her own scent.

Arriving at the tree she had done it next to, she put her nose down, sniffing for the final piece of proof. Maybe she could have just attributed the restlessness and the urge to relieve herself from not doing so all of yesterday. Maybe she could-

- and there it was. The final proof of what was happening with her. A few specks of blood among the dirt and grass with her pee. Inwardly, she froze as she stared at it.

She could even vaguely remember her mother telling her that one day it'd happen to her. That it was natural. That she shouldn't be worried about it. It was how she was concieved after all.

That didn't make it any less scary - she was out here, on the run with a dominant male wolf, and -

- and she was going into heat.

Crap.

~

Kodak would know that she was going into heat. One sniff at the scent she'd left behind in the place they had slept and Kodak would instantly know.

That explained her scent change, her restlessness and urge to pee. And yet she could scarcely believe it. No - she didn't want to believe it.

She wasn't ready for this. The heightened sense of receptiveness of everything around her, especially knowing that Kodak was right there, maybe only twenty meters away. Knowing that he was right there -

Yet she didn't feel ready. Definitely not comfortable enough with Kodak to allow it. Yet. But she couldn't trust herself to go back in there and not completely melt at his scent.

She managed to take a few steps towards where Kodak was sleeping, and settled on a compromise. She'd sit outside of the den, and watch the sun slowly rise as Kodak slept.

With one sniff he'd instantly know she was going into heat for the next three weeks. Lidiya just had absolutely no idea what he'd do about that.

And she was afraid of it.

The first thing that came to mind when she heard Kodak beginning to wake up was Kodak. No context. But as he began to wake up, realized what exactly was going on with her, and come out and find her sitting outside, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, she began to feel slightly irritated.

It was most definitely just a side effect of the heat. Her mother herself had demonstrated it when she was still young. That didn't solve it, however, and as Kodak spoke, it didn't lessen the irritation like his voice usually did.

"... yeah." Gods, she was absolutely terrible at this. Not only was she providing monosyllabic replies, she was now apparently being super hostile to the one wolf that she trusted completely. And that - no, that was not a reason at all.

The last thing that she wanted was a male constantly interfering with her just because she was in heat. Although she hoped she wouldn't have to have dealt with it, inwardly she knew that it just wasn't possible. They were just drawn to the females in heat - regardless of who they were.

Which was in part the change in her scent. Which meant that it was now more pungent and - crap - it would hover in the air for longer.

Well, good for their pursuers, she thought slightly irritably as she flicked an ear to shoo away a fly that was beginning to buzz around her left eye. Like even the flies decided it was a good idea to go towards her.

She didn't even give Kodak something to reply to. At least he was sitting some distance away - but here she was, looking at the sunrise, and Kodak sitting a bit away from her.