She had been tracking that damn mountain goat for hours now. She would have given up the hunt long ago, but she could have sworn that everytime she lost sight of it, a mocking baa echoed in the mountains, driving her ownward. She was more than aware that she had chased it far from her normal haunts, and the cold wind was beginning to slither through her "winter" coat. She was used to higher temperatures and humidity, not this biting mountain air.
Arayne looked up as a flash of white fur caught her eye, and bounded forward, lips moving up in a frustrated snarl. It wasn't getting away this time. She kept up with the creature as best she could, tracking it doggedly through the crags until she finally cornered it in a flatter section of the pass. The goat attempted to ram her with it's pointed black horns, but she sidestepped and locked her jaws around it's neck, dragging it down. A loud bawl erupted from it's muzzle, and she growled, savoring the blood that had begun to seep into her mouth.
rumblerumblerumblerumblerumblerumble...
Confused, Arayne pricked up her ears. Even the goat stopped struggling for a moment.
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE...
Dread lanced down her spine like a spear of ice. Only one thing made that sound in the mountains.
Arayne released her grip on the goat, and it bounded away, blood flicking off it's neck. She looked up, and her blood went cold. Bearing down towards her was an avalanche of titanic proportions. For a moment, her legs locked, until instinct kicked in and she leapt away, racing through the pass like all the demons of the underworld were after her.
As the white wall of death flowed inexorably down the mountain, catching rocks and trees and making a rumbling that could likely be heard miles away, Arayne ran faster than she ever had in her life. Adrenaline and fear robbed her of conscious thought, moving her limbs with no sense of exhaustion. But the avalanche was getting closer, and she knew that if she was caught in it, she'd die.
Whimpering with fear, she looked about for some sort of escape. Ahead of her in the pass, an outcropping of stone rose up high and steep. She made for it, tongue lolling, limbs pumping, as the avalanche crashed into the pass after her. Just before it nipped at her heels, she leapt for the rock, scrambling to the top and clinging to it. Beneath, the snow moved like a raging river, nearly reaching her paws. She screwed her eyes shut and huddled there, trying to block out the nightmare around her.
With a final hiss, the icy behemoth slowed, and stopped.
Arayne opened her eyes, then slowly started to pick her way down the rock. When she attempted to leap onto the snow, she sunk nearly up to her neck, then floundered as best she could to the end of the pass, where the snow slanted away. When she could find her feet again, she turned to see the result of the avalanche. The pass was completely blocked.
Arayne shook her head in mute dismay. If she couldn't find another route south, then she would be trapped here, for the whole winter, until the spring thaw. She looked up as the wind began to blow again, watching as snowflakes began to fall from a steel-grey sky.
Encrusted with snow and shivering bitterly, she sat down in the snow and tried not to cry."Speech"
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