Alder had really done it now. He'd been sent to deliver a letter to the hollow tree where his twin sister, Cypress, and her "beau" (who didn't know he was her beau) hid correspondence to one another when they couldn't meet - largely Cypress pestering Thoth about how he was doing, and Thoth's replies, which usually amounted to careful and very factual responses to each of her (many) questions, or impressively long letters about the things he was learning, thinking about, or working on. Usually a bunch of math and scientific stuff that made Alder's eyes water just looking at it; Cypress didn't understand it any better than he did, but that didn't stop her from beaming and glowing for several days after each one. It had gone as well as usual; he was careful to take all precautions anyways, but Alder was a familiar sight and thus went largely unchallenged by both outlaws and guards in the area since he often gathered various plants for Jacopo and the inn's chef alike. It was what happened after that got him into so much trouble.
Alder had always had a penchant for exploration; he blamed it on his mother's genes. Birch had often ventured into the wilderness for days, sometimes weeks at a time, to explore, to fight, to breathe. It had been one such adventure that had killed her, and one would think he'd have taken note of the dangers, but as soon as his job was done he'd taken off to explore a new bit of the Forest, chasing after a pair of Mirror Deer. He'd been so intent on tracking them - he hadn't seen any since leaving Knell, and he was curious where they were living - that he'd completely forgotten to pay attention for other animals, and wandered right into a Great Occiva's territory. The extremely aggressive bird had taught him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget, and although he'd managed to slay it, he hadn't walked away without injury.
He limped through the brush, disoriented and exhausted, barely pausing to untangle the thick vines and greenery his antlers kept getting caught in; he knew he needed to get... somewhere, and find... someone, but he couldn't quite remember who or what. He was covered in blood - both his own and the creature's; it had managed to get him a few times with its creature's raptor-like claws. The vision in his right eye slightly fuzzy, and his head was pounding. His left arm was held out from his body at an awkward angle, and he hadn't quite been able to bring himself to peek at it more closely. Sensing a presence nearby, and praying it was someone who knew something, he stumbled towards the woman and her big, winged... horse? He blinked for a moment, a bit of curiosity stabbing through the fog in his brain, but before he could react any further his stomach pitched, rejecting his breakfast, and he started to tip forward as the world went a bit gray and wobbly.
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