It was the middle of the night, but the small form zipping across the ground hardly seemed to notice. His coat practically glowed under the moonlight, and he hoped it was enough to show his friend where he was.
Car had left briefly to find himself something to eat. Normally he would just scavenge whatever Noct had caught that day, but he hadn't been hungry earlier. Giving his head a shake, the small jackal licked his chops to get rid of any remnants. Good meal, good snack, he thought with a nod, but now he needed to go back to his friend.
Of course, Noct was great at blending in at night, and with his penchant for sleeping, the lion was probably out cold and thus incapable of hearing Car searching for him. Good thing he had a good nose, or this would be reaaaaally difficult.
Swerving through the grass with a soft swish, Carbuncle perked up as he finally picked up his lion friend's scent up ahead. There he was! With a silent leap into the air, the jackal landed squarely on the familiar dark blue mane that he'd grown so used to.
It earned him a grunt and one bleary blue eye opening to look back at him. "Really, Car?" Noctis let out a snort and then rolled over onto his back with a wide yawn, jaw cracking from the effort. He barely noticed the jackal clambering with him to lay across his chest.
It was probably just as well; the dream he'd been having was the same as always. and not one he enjoyed. A nightmare? Well, more of a memory, he thought darkly.
He didn't want to think about it.
So instead he just gazed up at the sky, tried to count the stars and trace their patterns. He could feel Carbuncle settle on his chest, shuffling his nose under his little feet to sleep, and Noct couldn't help but smile faintly. It was lonely out here, but at least he had Car.
But then the familiar jolted in place, looking up with a growl to the side of them, fur sticking out to make the jackal look bigger - and that was enough to tell Noct that something was wrong.
Eyes narrowing, he flipped over onto his paws and crouched low, the beginnings of a snarl on his face.
She hadn't meant to startle them, really. The smell of a kill was what had originally attracted her attention - who could be hunting at this time of night? - and Majivu had run across these two in the process. She'd never seen a jackal before, though she was fairly certain they existed in the Firekin's desert, and certainly not one bonded to a lion. It earned them a curious look from her, before she spoke up.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just passing through." Kind of, anyway. With that group of Firekin and Mwezi sent over the mountains, she was waiting to hear of her own instructions going forward, and boredom had brought her out here. She wished she knew what was going on, but at least she got to see the world outside of her pridelands.
Noctis eyed her for a moment, and then nodded. "S'alright." He raised an eyebrow, "You always slink around in the shadows? If you don't want to scare people, you probably shouldn't do that." He stepped over Car, protecting him despite the assurance that she didn't mean any harm. This was a stranger, after all, and not all lions were friendly, least of all towards creatures non-lion.
He wouldn't allow anything to happen to his friend though. Car was all he had left.
Before Majivu could respond back though, said jackal piped up, "You're not what I'm worried about."
The sentence drew both lions' gazes down to look at him, but he ignored them in favor of squinting out into the darkness. Something wasn't right. He wasn't sure what, but... but it made the fur on his neck stand on end.
That made Majivu frown, eyes narrowing and looking out around them. She may not know much about jackals, but she wasn't about to dismiss someone's instincts when they said something was off.
That's when she heard it, so quiet on the wind that it was almost unnatural but there nonetheless. Taking a step forward, the Firekin scanned the area for whatever it was - before finally spotting it. She was used to seeing these in the desert as sand storms were a common occurrence, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that a tornado would be all the way out here. Were they common outside of the desert?
No time to question it.
"We need to find shelter, NOW!" She backed up a step, head moving wildly around her before she spotted a cluster of rocks formed in towards each other. Good enough!
"This way! We can hide in there!" Then Majivu was diving away.
Noct's eyes went wide as the lioness seemed to figure out what was wrong. What- but... what? Head swiveling back and forth, he finally growled and, leaning down to snatch Car up by the scruff, he bolted after her. A glance behind him finally showed what was wrong, and his ears went flat against his head as he turned back around and sprinted faster.
Diving headfirst into the crevice, he practically slammed against the rock wall and dropped Car with a gasp. The jackal yipped as he landed on the floor and then backed up under Noct with a whimpering growl.
It only lasted about a minute, at most, but it certainly felt like an eternity when the tornado fell over them with a thunderous roar. Noct cringed and crouched over his familiar, eyes shutting tight as he tried to will away the storm. Though they were covered, wind still buffeted them on all sides, making this a hellish experience for everyone involved.
Finally, the roar began to die down, but still, they didn't move. Not until the world returned to silence, did Car poke his head out from under Noctis with an inquisitive head tilt.
"Is it over?"
Majivu was the first to stick her head out of the opening, cautiously looking around them for any signs of the tornado. When nothing else happened, she sighed. "I think so.... but I wouldn't leave this shelter until the morning, if I were you." She bit at her lip, worried now that it might make its way over to her party.
She needed to warn the others. Tornadoes tended to be quick and devastating, but that didn't mean you should let your guard down too soon.
He'd been nodding to her suggestion of staying put when he noticed her leaving. "Wait, what are you doing?!"
She threw an apologetic look back at him, "I need to head back to my group. If they got caught in that tornado too because I didn't go warn them...." She shook her head, "Sorry, it was nice meeting you." She grinned, "Or well, startling you, as it were." Then she turned to start making her way out.
"Wait!" Noct scrambled to the entrance of their hideaway, but she was already bounding away into the night and the small whimper Car gave below him was enough to stop him from chasing after her.
With a huff, he looked down at Carbuncle and swiped a lick across his head. "It'll be okay, Car." He laid down, "We'll... just wait for morning, I guess."
The jackal threw an uneasy look up at the lion and then nodded, curling up between Noct's paws. He didn't think either of them would sleep a wink though.