Fading like a flower

Xochime Kimaris · 12-31-2011, 02:02 AM

[html]

860w :: Here be it!! XD Tell me if you want anything changed.

Once the first traces of frost and snow began to appear, this already cold land became merciless against those poorly adapted to snow, Xochime among them. Hunting became harder, and had it not been for the feast offered at the Last Supper, she would have a worse aspect than she already had. Her fat reserves were ebbing, and the layer of winter fur that she had managed to grow did not shield her entirely from the blistering cold. Only at her sister's place she found some comfort, but the hole in her stomach demanded to be filled. That was why she had to leave comfort and warmth in favor of nourishment.

A blur of tan shades mixed with black crossed the gray and green landscape as her most primeval instincts guided her towards the juicy meal that she craved. Pierced nose stuck to the ground, bat-like ears like satellites, the perfect picture of a hunter. Her secui body moved swiftly through the fading foliage. A couple of times a breeze rushed past her slender form, sending chills through her whole body and halting her hunt for a few seconds, resuming her quest immediately after she composed herself. Any form of life had seemingly vanished from the lands touched by the winter, so it took her a long time before she managed to catch the smell of a potential prey. It was a small animal, maybe a hare. She took off swiftly, fueled by the abundant viands consumed not long ago. She needed more food to replace the body mass lost at the beginning of the winter, and this smell was so attractive that it made her mouth water. Red eyes gazed the land before her, but her other senses were the ones that spotted the victim first. The coyote tensed completely and halted not very far from the place where the animal stood, and began to stalk it, keeping her body parallel to the ground beneath her. Primitive instincts took over her as she got closer to her goal. Once the animal was in sight, she realized that it was, indeed, a hare. Only some more meters. The poor critter was oblivious to the danger, as it fed carelessly from the scanty food of the season. She was closer. The hare rose a tube-like ear, feeling a threat coming. A bit closer...

All the tension released from the southern coyote's muscles as she sprinted towards the clueless leporid, which reacted a few seconds late. Grave mistake. The hunter ran after the fleeing animal at its top speed, mind focused on the juicy flesh she would feed off in a few seconds. It had no hope of escaping her claws and teeth. But despite her simple wish to satisfy her duty as a predator, fate is tricky and it often plays us bad pranks. In Xochime's case, a hole hidden under the forest floor caught her left leg, twisting it and sending the rest of her body flying a few feet forward and against the stone-hard floor. Her only movement came from her eyelids, which opened to show her the rear side of the furry creature, which appeared to mock her failure when it halted and stood on its haunches looking at the fallen canid with its onyx-like eyes. A growl from the predator's body shunned the creature, and so she was left alone, alone to her thoughts. Now she was no longer Xochime the huntress, she was Xochime the damsel in distress. And as instinct gave place to conscious thought, new painful sensations bloomed in several parts of her body. The secui coyote tried to stand up, but she fell again. The paw that had been caught by the hole ached, and her chest felt as if she had scrapped it against something rough. Crap. Plus, the humid floor was stealing her appreciated body heat from her, numbing her limbs and accentuating the feeling of pain. Double crap.

This time, she stood more carefully, trying not to put any weight on the sore leg, and limped the way back to the ruins, defeated and hungry. Luckily, there had been no blood, and the twisted articulation would stop aching in a couple of hours, but that meant that she would have to wait that time without moving, with nothing better to do but to count the shingles around her, or maybe stare at the gray mass of clouds atop of her head. She sighed, but decided for the rest, seeing as the distance between her and the ruins was big. Maybe not so. It could be short, less than a mile. Or around the next tree? she didn't care. She threw herself to the ground when she found a cozy looking spot under a pine tree. A wine broke the spectral silence around her when she accidentally placed her leg in an uncomfortable position, but then she plunged into it once more as the tension in her muscles was released. Her scarlet gaze glanced the land beside her every now and then, alert to any change on it that would signal the presence of either a helping friend, or a threat.

Flower lives "Flower says" Flower thinks

Login




Remember me Lost Password?