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private for Leroy
The season was advancing rapidly now, chilled brisk winds following on the heels of cloudy cold rains. Alacrity struggled to find a warm dry place to curl up at night and always woke stiff with cold in the mornings. She was unaccustomed to searching for underground dens, after all, and building a fire was next to impossible without opposable
thumbs. Thusly, it had become her habit to wake with the dawn and stretch the numbness from her limbs, and then running for miles in the fresh sunlight. African Wild Dogs were built for loping the terrain of endless savannas, and Alacrity was no exception. The exercise was routine for her, and had the added bonus of thoroughly warming her body.
The plan was seamless, except for two fatal flaws. First, that she ran with a certain reckless abandon, the thrill of speed pushing caution from her mind. Secondly, the territories claimed by clans where she grew were malleable things, changing with the movement of the life-giving herds. Crossing onto territory held by another was commonplace -- you followed your herds into your neighbors' land to survive, as surely as your neighbors did to you. Crossings done for survival were generally forgiven, unless of course, you overstayed your welcome or hunted the other clan's herds.
In any case, the combination of these two factors led Alacrity racing southward, her body a graceful multicolored blur in the increasing sunlight. When her stride carried her across the borders of Cour des Miracles, she hardly noticed and probably wouldn't have cared if she had - two flaws on the armor of her precautions.
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