[PQ] smiling out of fear

ASHE.    Her boots dragged over the ground, but she couldn't hear the limping scuffs in the dirt over the din of the storm. It raged around her, a sound that had become an innate part of her world. She drew her hood closer around her head at a particularly vicious whip of the wind, and her tattered blue cloak whipped wildly behind her. Months she had been out here in these god-forsaken storms, alone. All for nothing.    Home was close, she reminded herself. Some wild stroke of luck brought a scent to her sensitive nose on the wind, and it was home. The scent was hardly there, but she was so close now that even the lashing storm couldn't shake her from the trail. Ashe pushed through the wild storm, and she snapped her head back with a flash of lightning in the surrounding clouds. She paused, wary eyes lingering on the roiling darkness. Nothing there.    She swallowed roughly and cradled her arm close to her chest - poorly wrapped and badly broken, but still there. With a ragged breath, the girl turned back and --    Too fast. It had been too long since she'd last eaten, her head had been hit too hard, she'd bled too much, too much damage had been done. Her head felt light as storm around her tilted, and bright sparks of pain flashed in her vision as her arm hit the ground. Her sharp cry was swallowed by the howl of the winds. It fell into a groan through clenched teeth, her fist curling in the dirt. Almost home.    She tried to brace her arm beneath her, glaring at the storm ahead of her, at the wicked flash of lightning that mocked her and...    "Five hells," she growled. For there were figures in the clouds ahead, and she didn't have enough left in her to run. i may be broken, but I'm not done.