Forever Young

The sun was nice and warm on her back as Geneva walked, tearing away the chill of the morning and the moistness of the dew from her coat. Even though it was fall and warm from time to time, it was evident that fall was in full swing from the cooling rains and occasional cloudy days the land had. The reddish brown pup appreciated the change more than anyone knew. But now, she needed to figure out the biggest challenge yet; breakfast! Her stomach began to pang quite painfully now and she needed to find something and fast. At this point, even the trees and rocks looked edible.

It had been a few days since she had eaten last and while she found small bugs and critters to eat, and occasionally a bone with some meat left, it wasn't enough to keep her satiated. Geneva had begun to worry because she was way too small and lacked all of the experience to be able to hunt for her own. She had only gotten a few lucky breaks just to get her to this point. After that, there wasn't any food or water to find. As she continued to hike the new growing forest Geneva began to smell water. As much as she was hungry, she knew she was dehydrated quite badly and needed to drink. So without further hesitation, she sprinted like a little fluffy bullet to wherever this water was. She was close by for sure. She didn't even stop to think about her aching paws.

As she ran, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and instead ran right into the back end of Jackson with a tumble and an 'Oof!' but it didn't stop her. She clambered back to her little feet and splashed into the water and began drinking ravenously. She was soaked after her tumble and gallop into the water, but Geneva didn't care. Once her thirst was quenched she simply laid down in the water and looked back to the wolf with an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry, Mister." Geneva said softly as she took a few more sips of the water under her chin. She eyed him cautiously and examined the orange and sandy colored pelt the wolf adorned and remarked in her mind how much he looked like her. While he had two white circles over his eyes, he was not so different than her. Little did she know that she would have more detail in her pelt when she became an adult, but that was something to think about later.

Then the thought came to her mind... he's a wolf! She jumped up excitedly and bounded around. "I'm not alone anymore!" Geneva shouted and laughed as she spun around in circles. "Wait... you're not here to take me back are you?" she asked as she slowly backed away. Her little orange ears were flat against her skull as her posture resembled one of fear and submission. She was fixing to run. "I'm not going back there!" she shouted again. The same fears of being found from before were once again flooding her mind. This had been way too far for the wolves to come out for a thing like her, but she didn't know if she was even worth the hunt. Something in her gut told her he was safe, but she needed to be sure. In her current condition she would not be able to run far or long and since she hadn't eaten for a few days, it had begun to show in her body. She was ultimately done for if he was after her.

WC: 605