((Eyyy another music chapter!  This one is uhhh hardly based on anything.  Yeah, sorry, this song was more of an original thought, but the best way I can describe it is a more melancholy and drawn out version of the main chorus from "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush.  That's a very loose description at best tho.  Still hope you can enjoy it!

[This song is what's forcing me to wanna make these in the future]

-Author K))

Pearl backed away from the corpse quicker than she had anything else.  In fact, the only reason she stopped was because she ran back-first into a tree.  She whipped the axe out of her bag, holding it in front of herself with a trembling but firm grasp as her eyes darted around the greenery, frantically looking for the someone or something that could've possibly done this.  Tilly saw the body and immediately stopped everything she was doing, sniffing the air as if to make sure she was seeing the person she thought she was seeing.  The deceased's skin and clothes were all grayscale, safe for a very obvious red streak running through their near black hair.  The body was laid on its side, their head facing away from Pearl and towards the steep slope they seemed to have fallen from.  Pearl found that a good thing at first, but curiosity took hold of her with an iron grip, and now she wished to see this person's face, if only to maybe recognize it from somewhere.  For all she knew, this could've been the man in her dream. 

She calmed herself down for the most part, still shaky and anxious but a little more prepared to step forward now. She did so slowly, careful to look where she treaded when she got close enough to step on any spilled blood if her eyes missed a spot.  She turned the axe around in her hand, pointing the sharp end towards herself and allowing her to use it more like a stick as she poked the body with it.  One good and careful poke later, she nudged the shoulder enough to flip the corpse over onto its back, finally revealing their face.  Pearl went a few paces back, as if the body was prone to being dangerous when it was touched by a person.

Their eyes looked dull and clouded over, the slightest hint of red still forming at the iris.  Blood poured out of a gash in their chest, the cut running from almost the upper-right side of their neck to all the way into where the wrist of their left arm would be if they stood up straight.  Their clothing was torn, exposing a few smaller slices around their body.  There was an iron shovel on the other side of them, with something carved into the wooden handle.  Pearl was careful getting close to it, but she managed to read it eventually, and the name on it forced her come to a horrible conclusion.

"'Joel "SmallishBeans"'," she read the name out loud, whispering it to herself. For a moment, she doubted that this was the Joel they've been looking for, since there was a well chance that the item was just stolen by this man.  She turned to Tilly in a heartbeat, but the wolf had already recognized her former owner in the horrid state he was in, and any and all doubt Pearl had before washed away with the depressing attitude of the canine.  Pearl looked around one more time, her eye suddenly catching a change like a wind chime catching a sudden storm.  A figure stood on top of the mountain, presumably looking down at the duo.  Pearl couldn't see their face properly, but she must've caught their eye, because they walked away from the top and towards the other side, disappearing behind the slope.  She, assuming they were the one behind Joel's death, starting climbing up the mountain after them.

"Hey! Come back here!" called Pearl, jumping from edge to edge to scale up the mass of land. Despite her best efforts however, it took her far too long to reach the top, and by then the figure was long gone. All that was in their place was another blood stain and a golden feather, shining and glistening in the sunlight. Pearl examined the feather before taking it for herself, the first item on her list of things to never return ever.  The more she thought about the incident, the less she seemed to understand.

"How could someone just run off after killing a guy?  I'm not even intimidating, I have nothing but an axe!  Can you believe that Tilly?"  Pearl spilled, only to turn to her side and find out she was only spilling to herself. Tilly was still at the base of the mountain, laying down beside her former owner and giving off a series of heart-wrenching whines. Pearl slid back down to her, now feeling rather stupid for thinking Tilly would follow her to the top when the only thing the silver wolf cared about was dead at the bottom.

She slowly kneeled next to her furry companion, her fur brushing against the dirt and grass in a very uncomfortable way that she forced herself to endure. Her tail subconsciously wrapped around Tilly as she pat the wolf's head, looking directly at her the entire time as to not let her eyes stare at the corpse for too long when her nose had done enough of the staring for her.  She felt something wet splash on the sleeve of her hoodie, looking down to see a small drop of water had soaked into the already black fabric. Then another splashed. Then another. All at once, a drizzle of a rain started to fall down on the two, encasing anything exposed in a thin layer of water, which also managed to soak into some of said encased things if the cover around it were thin enough.  Pearl looked to the house at the top of the mountain, figuring it would be the best place to stay in from the rain at the moment.

She tried to pick up Tilly at once, wrapping her arms around the canine's belly only to be instantly met with louder whines than before as she wriggled her way out of Pearl's grasp and back to Joel's side.

"Tilly, we have to go," Pearl said cautiously, feeling as, if by mistake, her words could be deemed too fierce, and she would be met with the jaws of nature's bravest beast. But Tilly, brave as she undeniably was, was no fighter. She wouldn't bite, rather wrap her teeth around things, for if she had thumbs, she would use those instead. Maybe if she were a fighter, she wouldn't have had all the scars she did. She would've been able to defend herself.

It was a strange feeling, for Pearl to sense this off of her companion. But at the same time, seeing as they were both fueled by the blood of the moon worshippers, she didn't find it as odd as she could've found it.  This was a normal feeling, she could tell.  Nevertheless, she still knew they couldn't stay out in the rain, especially if and when it decided to get heavier.  Pearl held her bag under her hoodie, trying to protect it from getting drenched as she attempted to pick Tilly up a second time. The wolf still wriggled and squirmed, refusing.

Pearl was just starting to get irritated now.  Groaning in annoyance, she looked up to the house at the top of the mountain and figured that that was a good place to stay for the night. She was fully intent on coming back for Tilly, but for now, she scaled back up the mountain alone, believing she wouldn't have much more time to find a dryer place for her things. 

The stone house looked the same inside and outside, which was nothing much through and through, and that was fine with Pearl.  It had a roof that held up well, and really that was all she was looking for.  She dropped her bag, leaving her axe there as well, even if in hindsight that wasn't the smartest idea on her behalf. The drizzle was starting to get heavier, and Pearl hesitated to go back out, but she was determined to get Tilly under the same stone roof as her. 

Tanking through the rain, she went down the mountain carefully this time, for the water coating the grass and now mud could easily let her give way to another long and possibly deadly fall.  Said grass and mud coated her hands and paws, a little also smeared on her face from accidentally letting her head get too close to the ledge she was holding on to.  She made it back safely though and returned to Tilly's side to give one last attempt at carrying her out, but at that point, Pearl had gotten used to the wormy wriggling that loosened her own grasp.  Getting used to it, however, didn't make her any less annoyed at it.

"Tilly, he's gone!"  Pearl yelled, not so much out of anger, though there was a fair bit of it, but to be sure her voice was heard through the deafening white noise of the pouring raindrops.  "There's nothing left for you to do with him! Let me getcha outta here!"

But still the wolf refused, shoving herself away from Pearl once again.  Pearl opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly silenced by the clouds above her in the form of a lighting strike throwing the roaring sound of thunder throughout the land. Tilly yipped and backed away, not to Pearl, but closer to her owner's cold arms in the hopes that they would become warm with life at the sense of her fear. They did not.  He couldn't even sense her fear.

Watching as Tilly tried to find comfort in a dead man shattered Pearl's heart.  She was no longer angry, really she felt like she shouldn't have been in the first place, but whilst the pieces of said heart started their slow attempt to rebuild themselves, she, correspondingly, felt heartbroken.  She kneeled next to Tilly once again, gently reaching out her arms in a gesture of good faith this time.  Tilly looked at her, then tucked her head between her paws, still not wanting to be taken away yet. Pearl sighed.

Nobody's here
Nobody's around
Go ahead, you make fear
Not the other way around

She wasn't sure where the words came from, but she felt as if Tilly needed reassurance, and the tune felt familiar to her. To be honest, it calmed her down too.  Finally, after all this time in the cold, pouring rain, Tilly let herself be separated from the corpse by Pearl's hold.

And try as they shall
They will never take
The bonds that we share
And the friends that we make

In a rather impressive display of balance and persistance, Pearl hoisted Tilly over her shoulder and climbed the mountain for a 3rd time. She could feel Tilly still staring at the ground, not to keep the rain out of her eyes, but, well, what else would she be looking at? Pearl tried to ignore that looming feeling of dread and despair in favor of focusing on her climbing. 

Just as she grabbed the land at the top, the mud she used as a grip for her feet got too fragile and slipped off of the side of the mountain. She gasped and yelped, her arms scrambling to get a better grip on the land above so her whole body wouldn't fall with the mud.  Her paws scratched at the side of the mud, trying to find another grip that didn't exist.

Tilly was startled at her struggle, at first holding onto Pearl for dear life, but she soon saw another way out, and jumped to the top before the hybrid could pull herself up.  Pearl couldn't grasp anything properly in time, and she started to fall too far down for her liking.  Tilly grabbed at the hood of her hoodie, but the force of Pearl's fall proved too much to bear for one animal, and so they both went tumbling down together.

While she was unsure of where Tilly had landed, Pearl's fall ended in her slamming against the thick of a tree trunk, banging her head with it and knocking her out in the freezing rain.