[hider=Mellie]
[URL=http://s131.photobucket.com/user/librarychick77/media/Amelie_zpsa4063ef6.jpg.html][IMG]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p301/librarychick77/Amelie_zpsa4063ef6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/183892]Character Sheet[/url][/hider]

A plaintiff ‘hoot’ from the passenger-side wheel well made Mellie smile softly before she cracked the window. The poor little guy had sat in the car the whole hour Mellie had waited for Landon. It was April in the foothills, so it wasn’t oppressively hot, but for a creature who couldn’t sweat and was used to being out in the weather all the time the car had become a bit too stuffy.

She had run the car a few times, trying to get the air conditioning going, but sitting in a parking lot with your car on could get you some nasty looks nowadays. There was a no-idling bylaw, and it seemed to be enforced more by the angry glares of stay at home moms than by anything else. After the third nasty look from the woman three stalls over Mellie had huffed a sigh and turned off the engine; trying to convey that she was sorry to the little owl. Somehow she was certain he knew what she meant, and maybe even why…but she couldn’t put her finger on how she knew that so certainly.

After a full hour had passed as she read the same paragraph of her book over and over Mellie had given in and called. The first three times there was no answer. The third time an elderly sounding woman had picked up, sounding annoyed and distracted until she realized who it was.

The conversation was brief, but informative. Landon had been forced to stay home after he’d had a fall down their front steps; understandable, but inconvenient to say the least. Luckily the woman had been able to give Mellie the coordinates she needed. Mellie used the free wi-fi offered by the store to find out where the coordinates led to, and was instantly glad she had packed as much equipment as her station wagon could hold. It looked like she’d be camping, serious off-grid camping at that.

After a few minutes of thought, and a moment of thinking about what the next few months would look like to bring herself to the brink of hysteria, she called the principal babbling about her mother having suddenly fallen critically ill and needing an unknown amount of time off immediately. She didn’t give him a chance to say no, switching from pleading for understanding and choking back tears to thanking him profusely without giving him much chance to actually respond.

After the conversation Mellie had shut her phone, shaken herself off, and entered the store to grab the few things she’d planned to pick up. Then she added a large number of seeds and planting tools, even a few pots and bags of organic potting soil. There was simply no telling what they’d need, but if things kept going the way they were headed she wanted to be prepared to spend the summer, or longer, away from grocery stores.

She was actually on her way back to the car when she had a sudden thought, she had no idea who any of the people would be up there, and no idea what they would have brought. Her own supplies could, if managed carefully and used to their fullest, supply her and maybe a few others, if they helped plant and grow…but who knew how prepared they’d be.

It took her a minute or two to stuff the items she’d bought into the car, then she ran back in and filled a Rubbermaid tub full of medical supplies, biodegradable soap and other hygienic products – it wouldn’t’ do any good to wreck the campsite if they had to spend any length of time there – and numerous tubes of polysporin, vitamins, and pain killers. The cashier gave her a strange look as she unloaded the tub onto the counter, and Mellie gave her an embarrassed grin in return, but didn’t even bother to try for a lame explanation. 

She took the tub out to the car and, with some careful shifting and rearranging, she managed to squeeze everything into the car. Barely.
Now, two hours later, she thought she was within an hour and a half of the destination point. Mellie took a few deep breaths to stave off the anxiety she could feel threatening to overwhelm her, turned up the radio, and settled down to finish her trip and deal with the rest when she got there.

(2 hours later)

[i]~Bug!~[/i]

It was the fourth time she’d ‘heard’ that particular feeling of satisfaction mixed with joy and success and the following impression of a nice juicy bug wriggling down her throat almost didn’t gross her out as much as it had the first few times. Almost.

Mellie swallowed hard and tried to think of other things. Other things that were not food. She leaned back against her car and watched the bobbing brown head of the male owl as he scratched and hunted in the underbrush surrounding what could only loosely be called a parking lot. It seemed there weren’t any other burrowing owls nearby, so the local population of grasshoppers and other bugs was unaware of his hunting tactics.

Oddly, Mellie could feel the edges of his satiation as he considered whether to pounce on one more bug, or whether to find a spot for a nap. It was the oddest sensation, to feel what the owl felt.

The sound of a car in the distance roused her from her contemplation and she lifted her head to see if, this time, the car was coming down the winding road she had followed to this day-use area. It was only a minute before she saw that not only was the vehicle coming this way, but that there was another following not far behind.
The two trucks pulled into the parking lot at the far end from Mellie, clearly leaving space deliberately, and parked side by side.

Maybe these people were here fro the same reasons she was, and maybe they’d know who it was she was supposed to talk to. In early April there wasn’t much interest in hiking in the mountains, there was still snow – covered in dirt and grit – under the trees. She’d been the only person around for the past thirty minutes and she’d been beginning to wonder if she was meant to camp right where she stood.

As she contemplated the vehicles the owl meandered out of the brush and underneath the car. He clearly wanted to be right nearby, but out of view. Considering how small he was his presence made Mellie feel oddly safe and comforted, although she had a hard time imagining what help he’d be if these people did have ideas of violence and harm in their plans.