Today met her with another opportunity to go out on a solo exploration. She had traveled out to Cedar Falls a couple of times now and had always just gravitated to the river. However, she never spent much time investigating the thickly set evergreen forest. So once she could hear the echo of the waterfall in the background, she veered away from the water's edge. Weaving in and out of the enormous cedar trees. They were so uniform in shape, unlike the hardwoods that grew up around the grove, if she didn't have the assurance that the trickle of fast-moving water was nearby, she thought that it wouldn't be difficult to become lost.
She stayed out in the cedar forest for a long time and didn't realize that it was beginning to get dark until dusk had already set. With the sudden realization that she was going to miss her curfew if she didn't start covering some serious ground back to the castle, a sudden rush of anxiety filled her chest. However, it wasn't anything compared to what the sudden howling screams caused when they sounded off alarmingly close by. She was able to determine that they were coyotes, but it was too difficult to distinguish which direction they were coming from- or even how many there were.
Talyssa's heart raced as she broke out into a sprint in the direction she thought she could find the castle, and after a few heart-wrenching minutes, she thought she was in clear ... until one of them lunged out at her from the cover of some undergrowth. Talyssa cried out in shock and surprise as it struck her in the side, though she was able to keep her paws underneath her. In the sudden fray, she spun around to face it even though her mind screamed at her to run. But in the moment that it really counted, she froze, and the coyote did not.
Professor
Fleet-footed
