If you go out in the woods today

The unkempt girl just kept wandering, her mismatched eyes scanning the misty woods around her. It was strange to see so much fungus this deep into winter. Some of it she couldn’t even identify as a budding healer. A strange glow coming from one here, a bright red cap over there. It was like the snow wasn’t having an effect at all. It was strange, just like the fat moon that hung overhead and the sudden abundance of fireflies (which she wouldn’t expect to see until the warmer weather rolled around again). A few circled her head, drifting in and out of sight, her muzzle wrinkled in annoyance as she clicked her teeth overhead, attempting to shoo the damn things away. Of course, they just floated straight back, some even going to far as to settle in her fur. She didn’t like it, not one bit.

Daphne shook her coat and growled in frustration. Her ears lay flat as the sound was returned. Where had that come from? It was winter, surely all the bears were hibernating, right? That was what they did when the weather turned cold, so whatever it was couldn’t be a bear… could it?

What she had mistaken for a boulder up ahead, rose in front of her to stand on it’s back legs. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Dark skin rolled and rippled and as it turned the stench hit her. The stink of rotting meat and wrongness. It was the size of a bear for sure, but all the bears she had seen had fur. It looked like this one had been skinned, and the way it lumbered towards her on back legs was not like a bear would move at all. Foamy splittle dripped from its gaping maw as the creature roared, yellowed and broken teeth glinting under the too fat moon. The girl set her feet, and rolled her shoulders forward, growling in defiance. She didn’t feel like she had much of a reason to live anyway, wouldn’t this be a way to go out?

"speech".