From the Deep

From the Manatee Bay where she'd first stumbled onto Auster she was southbound. Her paws taking her to where strange trees grew, their odd dense looking canopies giving her shade from the broiling sunshine of mid-afternoon. She knew not where she headed, only that she could not stop. Not yet. Perhaps not ever. Not until the feeling receded and her wandering paws decided it was time to settle down somewhere amidst some land. As yet however the tug to continue her journey drew her further and further away from the southern direction from which she'd arrived.

With a flick of her tail she galloped in a zig-zag pattern through the towering trees. She halted when she thought she saw blood oozing from a wound in the tree where some claws, likely that of a bear or a large wild feline had made their mark.

Lifting herself up onto her hindlegs, her forepaws touching the trunk of the bleeding tree she sniffed at the red ooze. She found it did not have the scent of blood, but something else. With a furrow of skin betwixt her eyes she swiped her tongue over the resin. That confirmed it wasn't blood at all, but the sap of the tree. Why it was red she knew not, but then she'd never seen these trees in her life before.