on the bathing and keeping of direwolves

[tooktheblack]

One of the things about being in the Nexus and on the island was that it was warm and it meant that Ghost could spend a great deal more time hunting in the brush and dirt than over a layer of pure, white snow. Ghost himself did not seem to care how much of a mess he looked and wrangling the direwolf for a bath was an exercise in futility.

Jon had managed to corner him in his hotel bathroom and get him in the tub but before he could finish rinsing the soap from Ghost's matted, tangled fur, the direwolf burst through the open bathroom door and tore out, crashing into furniture along the way. Jon thought it would be prudent to keep him corralled in the hotel room itself except a poor, unsuspecting housekeeper opened the door and the wolf barreled out into the corridor, sensing freedom.

"You bastard!" Jon shouted after him, tearing out of his hotel room shirtless and in bare feet in hopes that he would catch Ghost before he got too far away. "You'll come back here or you'll regret it!"

Jon knew that if Ghost truly wanted to get away, he would. A direwolf was a wild animal, no matter how tame he might think Ghost was on a regular basis, and there was always the chance he would turn wild and run off. Still, he hoped the friendship they'd forged and the journeys they'd been on together would make Ghost...somewhat value his opinion on things.

"Ghost!"

[[Ghost won't hurt your pup but he is a wolf the size of a pony so he's not exactly small.]]

come on in and save me; come on

[makestheplans]

As soon as Katniss is sedated, I vanish. I kept it together in front of her, but once she's passed out I can feel myself start to crack. Heavensbee's looking at me; Prim's looking at me; I have to get out.

There's no booze in Thirteen, that's what they say. Coin's rules— but where there's a will, there's a way, and right now I need it so bad I don't care if I have to tear the entire place apart to find it. The kitchen's too obvious— but I know where there are storage closets, caches of supplies. An easy place to hide a bottle, if you had one you wanted to hide.

I push through door after door, barely hearing the noise of them banging shut behind me. The echoes are too loud in my head— Peeta screaming, hoarse and ragged with his hands wrapped around Katniss's throat; her sobs, desperate gulping gasps that only quieted when they put the IV in her arm. My own breath comes loud and sharp; my vision greys, my brain full of static, and I stagger, bracing myself against the wall with a trembling hand. The only thing that'll silence the noise is a drink. I shake my head to clear it, focusing on the door ahead.

I'm so focused on navigating I barely notice when the concrete beneath my feet changes to carpet. When the watery fluorescent light turns brighter, warmer, on the back of my neck. It's not til someone calls out behind me that I turn and realize, panic stabbing sharp in my side— I'm not where I was.

I plaster on a smile, hoping it'll hide the way I'm grinding my teeth. "Think I'm a little lost."

[Find him already in the bar or wandering the halls looking for it.]