Skidding around trees and under low hanging branches Rhys darted through the forest as if her life depended on it. Her heart hammered away in her chest and felt like it was on the verge of breaking free and galloping off into the sunset. Every once in awhile she glanced over her shoulder, but every time she did so the girl always lurched to the side so for fear of running into something she saved such a move for when she thought she heard pursuit. She was free! Free, free, freefree, FREE!
Uh oh, were those pawsteps behind her? Had mommy or daddy discovered she was missing already? Quickly Rhys' head snapped around and her eyes briefly darted across the landscape behind her in search of a pursuer. No more than a second later and she was facing forward again, but it took a second for the sudden blur of colors to solidify into discernible shapes and in that instant Rhys suddenly found herself on a crash course with a stranger. She had just enough time for her breath to catch in surprise before she had to slam on the brakes to avoid faceplanting into the wolf/branch combo. What little distance there was between them was easily crossed with an uncontrollable skid across the slick ground and in a matter of heartbeats Rhys found herself almost smooching the face of the stranger. Not just any stranger, no, but what looked like a D-E-A-D stranger.
After a few rapid blinks Rhys took a small step backwards so she didn't have to stare at the body all cross-eyed-like. Huh. So this was what dead wolves looked like, huh? Looked an awful lot like any ole dead thing, really. She'd been expecting something a little more spectacular. Still, it was pretty cool. She kinda wanted to poke it. "Whoa!" Oh, wait, was it breathing? She squinted. Well, it didn't hurt to ask, now did it? "Are you dead?" If she got no response then there was no harm done. But if she got one she might have to say sorry or something. Was asking if someone was dead a faux pas like asking why someone had such ugly teeth? Rhys wasn't sure but she'd hate to make the same kind of mistake twice. It was just so hard to know what she could ask and what she couldn't.
