The Trees Bleed

The excitement of the boy easily rubbed off on Duchess, her smile came easy at his appearance and energy. That first meeting where she was sad was hopefully long forgotten, or at least not on the mind of the pup.

Duchess followed as he went to inspect one of the trees. She had also heard of the trees in the grove but had never experienced herself. She spotted marks along the bark around another side of the trees, calling for Ricin, "Look right here." Her front paws went up on the tree, stretching to point out the thick, syrupy drips that had fallen from the tree a while ago. It was hard to the touch, but she wasn't going to go ahead and taste it. "It doesn't look like blood to me." She assured.

When he asked if it was okay to poke the tree, Duchess sniffed at the bark lightly before pulling her claws across the surface on her way down off the tree. It started oozing red resin, and left a residue on her paw from cutting it open. "Sticky." She stated with joking look of disgust, but she wasn't worried about running to water to wash off her paw.

"Duchess"