Once Bitten, Twice Shy

The spring wind seemed to whistle through the walls of the canyon, creating a kind of eerie music. Solveiga stood at the mouth of the huge formation, debating whether or not she should enter. Would it be safer to do a bit of climbing and cross the canyon from the top? Probably. Who knew what might lie in the shadows between those two massive walls of rock? There could be predators, or falling rocks, or less than friendly wolves. Last time she had decided to cut through a canyon, it hadn't ended all that well for her. But it could have been worse, and of one thing Solveiga was certain: it would be an adventure.

That was what she had come here for, right?

With a deep breath and not a single look back, Solveiga went marching into the canyon. Her ears twisted and turned almost constantly as she tried to hear through the haunting whistle of the wind against the stone, and she kept her head down and her eyes wide open. She was looking up, at the pockets and caves in the walls above her, trusting her feet to simply follow the path of the winding river. She was too naive to know that she should also be looking down. And her naivety was always her downfall, wasn't it?

Through the sound of the wind, the little woman suddenly heard a different sort of sound. At first she thought it sounding like something scraping against something else. She stopped, and turned her ear to the sound, and only then did her mind register it as hissing. She looked down quickly and tried to move away, but the speckled brown snake at her feet was too quick. It lashed out, teeth extended, and bit Solveiga just above her front left ankle. She yelped in surprise and pain, bringing her unaffected paw down on the snake before it could get away. Ignoring the pain of the bite for now, she pinned the snake by its head and quickly snapped her jaws down, killing it. When the whole scene was over, she whimpered and looked down at her ankle, trying to lick at the trickling blood. She had killed the snake to ensure that she could get a good look at it, and luckily, she didn't think it was the venomous kind. But... damn, did it hurt.