If Lidiya had more than only a marginal sense of awareness, she'd be either kicking herself for letting her get so close to someone else, or absolutely blushing. Neither emotion was helpful at the moment, obviously.

But as she watched Kodak enlargening the dry space beneath the tree, muscles rippling as, despite his injury, he powered into the ground, and Lidiya watched with far too much interest - yeah. Now was not the time to be thinking these thoughts.

Hopefully he hadn't seen her watching him. Hopefully. She wasn't too confident on that, but she could hope.

Once Kodak had finished enlargening it to his standards, and he called for Lidiya to joined him - it really was only at that moment that she fully understood what they were doing.

She was essentially sharing her bed with Kodak. Despite his modifications, there really wasn't any way around it, and the tight fit meant they'd have to be touching throughout the night.

No bad thoughts. No change in scent, she silently willed herself as she squeezed back in through the opening and settled in beside Kodak.

It wasn't uncomfortable - it was actually quite nice - but the proximity of Kodak was... disturbing. Here, in this small hole in the ground, there wasn't any way to not smell his pine scent as strong as it ever had been, and Lidiya had to supress a little whine at being so close to it.

Her scent had definitely not changed. At all.

Honestly, with both of their body heat AND KODAK'S SCENT, her mind screamed filling the hole, it was honestly rather comfortable - if not awkwardness between the two of them.

She also quickly established there wasn't any way around it - there simply wasn't enough room, and she'd have to rest her muzzle on Kodak's shoulder if she wanted to have her hind legs and tail not poking out of the hole into the cold outside.

Great. Absolutely freaking great. Hoping Kodak didn't mind, she gingerly rest her muzzle on Kodak's shoulder. At least it was uninjured. And holy gods, his scent was almost unbearable from this proximity.

So here they were, almost like two puppies piled on top of each other in sleep, and touching each other in multiple places - it was either that or they'd have to sleep outside - and it was honestly too warm for Lidiya to move.

That, and a small traitorous part of her brain didn't want to move her head from Kodak's shoulder, where she could feel his muscles beneath her head, and his heartbeat. Well, and his scent. Holy, but it was strong from where she was.

"Sorry about this," she whispered half-heartedly - she honestly wasn't very sorry about it at all - and sleepily. Damn, she was tired.

With the patter of rain on the leaves above them, Kodak's quite breathing, his warmth and scent surrounding her, she quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Lidiya woke up to the sound of rain on leaves and light.

Ugh.

Why did she have to wake up? It was perfectly comfortable here, and she didn't want to move from the wonderful source of warmth and scent and Kodak. In fact, she was so close she could practically hear his heartbeat.

Nevertheless, her ears pricked, and while she didn't open her eyes - wanting the moment to last a bit longer - she quietly listened to the surroundings, trying to distract herself from who exactly was sleeping right next to her.

It sounded... normal. No growling wolves from her... ex-pack, she guessed. With the light of the morning on them, and a few hours sleep... she had definitely felt a lot better than she did the night before.

Although the ache of her younger brother didn't fade, at least it was better. Slightly. Not because of the wolf underneath her muzzle whose scent she was absolutely surrounded by - not that she minded, of course.

However, sooner or later they'd have to face the oncoming day, and the soner they were gone, the more time they had before the othes came after them. After Kodak for escaping, and after her for aiding and abetting him.

Reluctantly, she peeled her muzzle off Kodak's shoulder, and the absence of his heartbeat and scent right next to her nose instantly hit her, like she had just lost something integral to her. Trying not to disturb Kodak, although already missing his warmth next to her cheek, she silently slid outside.

It was a lot colder outside than it was in the makeshift den, and while Lidiya felt the cold instantly, it woke her up to a lucidity enough that she could fully process everything. She gave her head a violent shake, in an attempt to ward off all the thoughtts that had occured to her in the little hole.

But sleeping like that right next to Kodak was just so comfortable-

... her brain was clearly in no shape to cooperate, it seemed.

Lidiya started slightly - she hadn't meant to have woken up Kodak, but even if she hadn't it would have happened sooner or later, really - she quickly relaxed when it was just him, nothing threatening at all.

"I think we can hunt together," she said, knowing tthat the reason she wanted to hunt together was because Kodak was probably one of the few wolves left hat would tolerate her - that, and she didn't want to leave Kodak.
"We can probably find some small prey to eat or something." She didn't necessarily need to eat - she probably still had a few days worth of energy inside her, but if Kodak wanted to, she'd follow. She felt more secure next to him, somehow, despite he had some injuries.

Speaking of which -

"Are your wounds healing nicely?" She looked down critically at Kodak's side, which she hadn't bothered to check this morning when she was right next to it, it seemed.

At least, they looked alright. They had scabbed over quite nicely over the night from the angle that she was looking at them. However, she knelt down and gave it a quick lick before looking at Kodak in question. "Do you think they'll be alright for today?" She didn't want Kodak breaking the scab, or worse, making it worse and tearing it further. It looked bad as it was already.

Lidiya quite happily followed Kodak. She hadn't been paying too much attention when they had passed, but then rat burrows were better than nothing. And it's get them enough food for a few more days. Better to sacrifice the time now and gain distance later, than to run out of energy? Plus, who knew when they'd find something similar?

"Yeah, that should be fine, as long as you know where it was." She really hadn't been paying attention, what with the rain and being so tired. There could have been a stream and she'd probably have mindlessly jumped over it without even noticing it.

Standing up, she motioned with her head for Kodak to go first. Something about it just felt... right. It just felt safer for her to be letting Kodak go first, and while she hadn't really lived her life in security - that illusion had shattered the day her mother had died - she liked it anyway.

Although she couldn't really get too used to it, it was a nice feeling. To be with someone who actually trusted her, and was... actually helping her.

That was something that hadn't happened in a long time to solitary Lidiya. Then again, she hadn't trusted other wolves in a long time either. So... Kodak was just a lot of firsts for her. Including how his scent and feel made her feel. She could only hope that Kodak would understand, though.

Lidiya had definitely noticed Kodak's little display of dominance - it was what she'd been trained to look for in wolves, where they fit in the dominance heirarchy, and who she could boss around, and who she'd have to submit to.

She herself was pretty high up in the ladder compared to the rest of her pack - or maybe that was just her independence. But Kodak - now, from what she'd seen, Kodak's dominance was definitely quite greater than hers.

To be fair, he had been the Alpha's son. Doubtless that he'd have a lot of dominance - she'd be fine with it, as long as he didn't just start bossing her around.

How would she say it though? "Kodak, I don't really care about your dominance level, as long as you didn't start bossing me around like nothing?" Yeah, there really wasn't much way to say it to him - he had more inbuilt dominance than her, and she'd just have to live with it. She was fine with it, after all.

Lidiya was very nearly distracted when Kodak shouted "Now!" and it took her a split second for her to refocus on the targets in front of them - who had used that exact split second to run away. Noting the positioning of the rabbit burrows, she took off after the one that she thought she could catch, angling it away from the rest of them and away from their silly burrows.

Lidiya was a fast runner - she was small and sleek - but this rabbit was running for it's life. In fact, this was probably one of the faster ones that she'd ever chased.

She was quite far away by the time she slipped up - on a patch of dirt that looked fine, but her paws sank into it quite far, and she was forced to stop as the much lighter rabbit made it's way across the soft ground at top speed, not seeming to tire.

Damn it. Now her paws were muddy, it was still raining, and her meal had gotten away. And - she realized - she had actually gone quite far out. Definitely out of range of Kodak.

It was that thought that got her racing back, heedless of the mud that was slowly coming off he paws as she ran, back to Kodak. She didn't want to be left alone out here by heself any more than Kodak probably did.