as desperate as that sounds

Summer was great! Sure, her skin got extremely raw if she was out in the heat of midday, but she didn't care! All the bugs were out, ready to be chased! When she'd been born, bugs weren't even a thing. Spiders didn't dare come up to the north, not in a million years. Butterflies could barely make it to the rock garden! How lame was that? So lame.

She'd wandered away from Olya after they gathered the fumitory, and now she was playing in the water as the sun set. This water was way better than the cold stuff back home. She could splash and swim, and there was no need to worry about freezing to death. What was better than that? Dunking her pale head beneath the surf, she forced air through her nostrils. Bubbles erupted from her nose, and rumbled to the surface. Bursting back up to the open air with a gasp, she found herself stricken with laughter. This was great! Bounding carelessly through the waves that lapped at the beach, she felt like she could run forever.

Something skittered past her escapades, something small and weird. A bug? It had to be. Look at all those legs! Head low to the ground, she prowled closer. The little thing looked at her with buggy black eyes, and flexed its weird little legs. Open, and closed again. It was barely bigger than her foot, and definitely looked appetising. Rearing onto her hind legs, she put all her weight forward, and let her forepaws slam into it on the downward fall. CRACK!

walk "Talk" think