Haaji lay where he washed up for a long while, his thoughts reaching out as far as he could stretch them, searching for any sign, no matter how faint, of his promised. His future. His hope.
     Light and Darkness, what did they have against him? Why did his deities have such a horrible fate mapped out for him? Hadn't he worked just as hard at remaining neutral as any other sira in his tribe? How could either of them have an eye on him, and mean to do him such harm?
     It was then, as he lay there like a crumpled bit of flotsam, having lost all in his world that was important to him, that Haaji finally gave up his gods. If he was no different from any other sira of his tribe, save in looks, there was no way he could have attracted enough attention to warrant this fate. He had done nothing to offend either of his kind's dual deities. Therefore, the mere fact that this was happening to him suggested that there was no deity to offend.
     Where did that leave him?
     For a long while, the only thing he heard was the chill wind whipping through the trees. The only thing he felt was the pain of his own injuries. The sun arched higher in the sky, offering light but little heat, and no comfort at all. Still Haaji refused to give up. They were so close when he lost consciousness, even if the water had complete control, they would at least have ended up in the same area, right?
     Stretching his senses like that was straining, and it didn't take long for his already compromised stamina to wane, forcing him to take a short break. He lay panting for a moment, eyes closed against the strain headache, then decided to take stock of himself. It would be pretty pathetic if he found her only to realize that there was no way to help because he'd neglected to set a broken bone, or something.
     Moving debris off of his limbs, Haaji took stock of his injuries. Thankfully, nothing was broken. Bruised ribs and cramped muscles he could deal with. He limped off to some less muddy, higher ground, there attempting to set his feathers in order. He looked like a drowned NC. His coat was no longer white, but it was less improvement than detriment, the half-dry mud slicking his fur to his sides and making him look even more fragile than he already did. If he'd had less on his mind, the sira would have insisted on a bath before anything else happened, even ignoring his injuries.
     As it was, as soon as he felt able, he wakened his senses again and set them to probing the surrounding area more thoroughly than his first attempt. Any sira in the area would show up like a beacon on his radar. Even non-siran sentients would glow. Smaller lives, like birds and small animals in the trees around him ghosted across his field of observation, leaving vague impressions but nothing more. There was a denn of k'd somewhere to the north. A human settlement to the north-east. Any number of smaller animals.
     Something unusual caught his attention, but it wasn't a siran signature. This almost made him pass it over as unimportant, but the way it reacted to his fleeting mental touch made him circle back to it for a closer inspection. It didn't seem sentient, or if it was, perhaps it was dormant. Unconscious. There might be something to that. It was fainter, so perhaps his Cliija's signature would also be faint?
     Deciding to check the thing out was the easy part. Actually finding it proved to be a bit more difficult. At least it wasn't far, so Haaji didn't have to limp for more than a few minutes before he was literally on top of the mental signature.
     Now that he was this close, the signal was stronger, and almost a distress beacon. Whatever it was, it needed help.
     Whatever it was, it was buried beneath a massive pile of debris. Haaji would not have been surprised to find a whole tree uprooted and tossed onto the pile as he dug through, gingerly pulling twigs and stones off and tossing them aside, scooping mud out of the depression as he went. Did it have air? Perhaps that was it's distress; a small and diminishing air supply, and no way out?
     Haaji dug faster, sending reassuring thoughts to the thing. Even if it was small an non-sentient, it deserved better than to be trapped in this pile of mud for the last few moments of it's life.
     When he finally found the thing, he almost tossed it aside with the sticks and stones. It looked for all the world like a large, river-smooth stone, as mud covered as it and the other stones were. The only thing that made him pause in the action of shunting it off to the side was that, once it was freed of the mud, the distress faded.
     Confused, the sira stared at the ovoid shape in his paws, wiping a thick layer of mud from it's surface and revealing a vibrant green and yellow surface.
     Definitely not a rock.
     Just as definitely not just some unconscious thing.
     The very fact that, even as an egg, it had a mental presence and was aware of it's surroundings and able to feel distressed because it was trapped caused Haaji to seriously rethink his estimation of it's mental potential.
     But all that could wait. He slipped slipped down to the river's receding edge and washed most of the mud off the little egg, then slipped it into his pouch for easy transport. It would also be warmer in there, but for the moment, all Haaji worried about was being able to use all of his legs for balance. Three of the four were already painful to walk on, why give one up to hold something if he didn't have to?
     That done, his search continued, but by the time the sun had disappeared below the horizon, he was still no closer to finding her. In fact, the coming of night only exacerbated the situation. Haaji's outlook on the situation sunk with the sun, his hope fading with the waning light.
     He was exhausted, hungry, and in pain. He was no closer to finding Cliija. He was any number of miles away from home, and he didn't know how to get back. Light and Dark, they probably didn't even want him back. Were probably just as happy to be rid of him, though losing one outcast albino the cost of also losing one of the most beautiful, vivacious young females in the tribe probably didn't make them too happy.
     Too tired to continue, Haaji found a small depression in the earth under a sheltering tree and dropped into a deep sleep. He had all but forgotten the bulky presence in his pouch, but curled around it protectively as he slept, responding unconsciously to it's waves of gentle comfort and reassurance.
     Some time during the night, it started to rain again, washing most of the stranded debris further downstream. Fortunately for Haaji, he had found a spot on high enough ground to avoid being swept away again. Unfortunately, it was also not very well chosen.
     The egg tried to wake him when a pair of humans approached, but he was too tired to respond, though his dreams shifted from endless searches along the riverbed to running from nameless, shadowy fears.
     His only reaction to being moved was a faint shift in expression, and attempt to get comfortable again, curling up around the egg still in his pouch, twitching in response to his imagined pursuers.

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