Welcome to Gaia! ::

3 to be precise. ::Kusaa progressed forward, as she looked over Faith herself::

She has slept like this for a good many weeks now.

The sad truth is, Faith does sleep... and she belittles herself that she can never stay awake a full night to work on this... ::She indicated all around::

I'm more than certain nobeast in this abbey hasn't pulled such an allnight antic at least once in their lifetime to try and help the abbey through a tough spell.

...I once spent 72 hours awake before I finally found a shady corner to wait in.

She just wishes to do more for her abbey, and her fellow creature. ::Kusaa spoke, and even her monotone showed some respect that cracked on one of its odd occasions:: She may not be a beast as brave as Mariel Gullwhacker, or as strong as Queen Warbeak... but she'll do all she can to help others.

::Kusaa reached for the covers of the bed herself, it seemed immaculate and untouched, as the bat dragged it along, before draping it behind the small Abbess:: I sometimes wonder... if Abbess Ayla saw that in her, when she passed Faith the torch.

Eula nodded at Kusaa, then turned and left, pulling the door shut behind her. She ambled slowly down the corridor, looking out the misted-over windows at the pouring rain outside. She came around out of the corridor to the grounds, waiting for a moment. She realized running for it was kind of pointless, as she would be out in the rain anyway. She tugged her hood over her head and folded her arms in against herself, heading out into the cold rain.

She moved quickly across the grounds and up the stairs to the walltops. She gave a quick wave to any guard who noticed her and shot her a wary glance. She came across one of the slumbering guards, a young squirrel with his back resting against the ramparts and his head tilted onto his shoulders.

Eula nudged him with her footpaw. The guard came awake with alarm. "Huh wha- get back!" He jumped up, brandishing a spear he was clearly unqualified to possess. Eula took a cautionary step back, and the squirrel, now fully awake, calmed down, and shot Eula a less-than-pleased look.

Eula lifted her paws in a shrug. "Don't look at me like that... you're the one sleeping on your watch."

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you be awake?"

That ended the conversation, and Eula shot him one last warning glance and continued down the walltop, looking for the other two sleeping guards.

Eula continued ambling quietly down the walltops, letting her mind go blank with the calming, numbing sound of the rain. It wasn't until she saw someone sitting on a parapet that she felt a twinge of annoyance. Forget sleeping guards, they had suicidal ones! She picked up the pace and walked briskly over.

It wasn't until she was close that she realized who it was, the tell-tale long ears being covered by the hood of a cloak. She sighed, shaking her head, coming up beside him. She made sure not to sneak up on him... it wouldn't be very nice to startle him in such a precarious position. For some reason, she wasn't terribly surprised to see him awake.

"I'll have a hard time concentrating in the morning if you go and plummet to your death tonight," Eula said flatly, giving Donato a reproving look from beneath her own hood.

"Mmm..." Eula said with a groan, rolling her eyes a little. "Night watch?" She wasn't lying. It was her obviously-not-true reply that Donato was supposed to tell meant something else. She'd probably tell him... but she wasn't much in the mood for relating such a horrible dream at the moment.

"I just came around to see if anyone was a- oh would you please just get down," Eula finally snapped, passing a paw over her eyes.

"Why are you up?"

Well, Donato having put himself in deadly danger was clearly one thing that was bothering her, as she visibly relaxed a bit now. Even the rain let up a bit; it was still a steady rain, but not a heavy downpour like before. She pushed her hood back, giving up on it was water droplets dripped off its hem into her eyes. She wiped water off from around her eyes, nodding a little at Donato's question.

"I'm fine. Just... had another dream," Eula said bluntly. "It didn't seem all that prophetic to me, it was just..." she trailed off, then shook her head. There was no real reason to go into details. It couldn't have meant anything. Just a horrific nightmare. Although, it was always a little surprising how forthcoming Eula was lately with her problems. Keeping secrets was so much easier when she could at least tell ONE other person.

Eula kept quiet for a few moments, eyebrows knitted together. She hated to be THAT creature. That one that, no matter what, something was wrong with her. Lately, if felt like a conversation could never go by where she wasn't describing some problem or another. When she tried to see her problems from the outside, she was so annoyed with herself. How whiny and needy did she seem to others?

"It was just a bad dream and I can't sleep," she replied honestly. "But I don't really want to talk about it. It was just..." she shrugged, messing with the dripping hem of her cloak. "I don't want to think about it."

Even though she knew if Donato had pressed a little more she would've told him, she was glad he let it go. She brushed past him and leaned against the ramparts, staring at the barely discernible forest all around them. With the pelting rain and any source of moonlight hidden by the storm clouds, it really was a thick nothingness all around them. Absolute and real darkness, only broken by the few random, dim flashes of lightning in the distance.

It was all foreboding. She felt she didn't need to voice this thought. It was hard to decide if she liked calm and quiet before an impending danger, or this stormy prelude. The calm would've made her antsy and tense. This thundering rain was something of an outlet, a way for her to try and just close her eyes and let her mind go blank, if only for a few moments.

So she did that, just for a few moments. Closed her eyes. Let her mind go blank and absorb completely the sound of the rain and the distant, rolling thunder. Anything, anything to stop her mounting anxiety attack. It had been so long before she'd had to face these problems. She forgot how to deal with the stress. She used to thrive on this pressure, this certain danger. Perhaps, when this was all over, she'd reevaluate what made this so easy before.

It took a few moments before she realized the numbness she'd been attempting to achieve had spread from her inside out. This cold autumn rain had thoroughly numbed her body. She opened her eyes and rubbed her paws until they tingled from the warmth.

"Do you want to head down to Cavern Hole and get a decent fire going?" she finally spoke, turning to Donato questioningly. "Won't do either of us much good to go and get sick."

((Dude, I ramble too much. I have got to shut up. XD))

He squeezed her shoulder as she brushed past and looked over the ramparts from behind her. The hare was remembering how much he had always hated this sort of feeling. Well, not always, but for a very long time. He was anxious and frustrated, and the storm wasn't helping much. Looking out at the darkness right now only increased his anxiety; it seemed infinite. The movement of Eula chafing her hands caught his attention and drew him out of his reverie. "Mm," he grunted. "Good idea, let's get out of this." He waved toward the blackness beyond the walls. "If I have to look out at this sea of nothing much longer, I think I might go crazy."

((Welcome back, Appy!))