step lightly

For a winter evening, it was unusually humid; the entire dark sky above was holding its breath and waiting to unleash a gust of slurry and cold rain. Siobhan almost felt like she should be holding her own breath as she picked her way carefully through the thorns. The thorns and branches were brittle with cold. As she walked, no matter how she tried to avoid the prickers, they snagged and broke off in her fur. They were so tightly wound that she doubted she'd be able to loosen them herself. Praying she didn't mat her fur beyond repair, Sio slunk lower to her belly to try and navigate through a particularly narrow pass. Why had she come here, anyway? She'd been looking for adventure after the long, long winter - but maybe this was a bit too adventurous.