The day that I die

This looked like a good place to hunt. Spring had finally begun, and the lands were beginning to burst with the buds of life. Small plants sprung from the earth, grass was coming back to life, and the animals were beginning to prepare for the busiest and most exciting time of their lives. The delta, with all of its waterways, varying landscape and closeness to the ocean, made it a place of abundance. At first, it was a place that might look pretty plain, but if one knew how to look, there was bounty to be found at every glance.

Bright limped carefully toward the edge of the water, making sure not to put too much pressure on her injured hind leg. It was doing well, but she still needed to be careful - it was too easy to re-injure a strain. However, with winter just past, she knew she needed to hunt, the keep up her strength and to have something to bring back to her pack mates. She'd spent a few days laying around, and now she needed to get back to work. As she padded along carefully, she began to notice, just slightly, that the ground seemed quite spongy, and the air was warm and humid. How unusual for this early in the season - still, she didn't really see it as a problem, just an abnormality.

She was so focused on seeking out other animals, her eyes watching their every movement as the birds fluttered around the water's edge and small rodents rooted around, that she didn't hear the distant roaring until it was too close. When it came to her attention that a vague rumbling noise was growing louder, she turned to look upstream, and noticed what seemed to be a large swell in the river. What was that? She squinted, trying to look closer, realizing quickly that it was headed her way and it wasn't coming slowly. Fear caused her heart to begin racing; she needed to get out of here!

The silver-coated woman whipped around, intending to leave the water's edge swiftly, but her injured ankle caught in the muck, and she gasped as the injury twinged. The hesitation in her movement left her without time to spare. She yanked her hind leg painfully from the spongy ground and tried to make a dash for safety, but it was too late. A swell of fast-moving water splashed over her, debris battering her body and causing her to lose any footing she had. She toppled over, and the rush of water over her head was deafening. Her muzzle broke the surface momentarily, allowing her a gulp of air before she was dragged away by the force of the river. She tumbled again and again, sometimes feeling her claws hit the shore, while other times solid ground seemed ages away. Panic began to grip her heart. Was she going to die?

After struggling against the river's flow, she realized she could not win. She had to go downstream, it was her only hope, if there was any hope at all. She paddled as best she could, pain searing through her ankle, lucky enough to catch a breath now and again. She had no idea where she would end up or if she would make it at all, but she hoped that this nightmare would end sooner than later. She didn't know if her will was strong enough to keep going.