Being, but am I Breathing?

His mother was at least 5 days gone, and still there had been no sight of her. Jed wasn't quite sure what he had expected. That the rockfall which had separated them would vanish unnoticed, and they'd be reunited again, to bask in the awkward company? That he'd find her dead body crushed beneath the mountain? That she'd be looking for him too? He didn't need her– stubbornly told himself that he didn't need her nor any company for pleasure, but it was just... wrong. He could do anything now, wander off past the mountain range, stay out long after dark to look at the stars, talk to anyone he liked. Nothing to enforce the rules he lived by, nothing to really do. At all. And so he'd kept to routine, hunting, gathering, sleeping. Hunting, gathering sleeping. And it was nice and it was pleasant, but Allure still hadn't turned up, and Jed was getting reading to search farther, search wider, not out of any urgency, but because it was a possibility, and if he could stick to his routine and see more of the world, why not?

Spring was beautiful in the mountains, the air smelling fresh and sweet, bringing constant news of prey and running water with it. Today was no exception, with sunny skies, the distant burble of the water below, and the soft grass beneath his paws pleasant to the touch. Admittedly, Jed really had no idea of where he was going, but he could think about that later, with a new cave each night and prey to be eaten as soon as killed.

The large brown wolf trotted further from his latest resting place, leaving the last vestiges of the lake behind in favour of a thicket and rocky land. In this area, even with the springtime, the flora was wiry and more greyish-yellow than green, though it smelled fresh, and held traces of life beyond what was visible at first glance. The terrain rose steadily in an incline, and as the bushes grew thicker and the trees sparser, Jed continued on shouldering through the most troublesome of plants, head slightly raised, in order to take everything in. There didn't seem to be direct paths, but evidence of larger creatures and the faint scent of other wolves permeated the air.

And then the flora thinned out, and he pushed forwards slightly faster until his front paw slid off the edge of something and he scrabbled back, eyes wide as a terse, distressed yelp burst forth from his maw. That was something decidedly unplanned.