All I've got is pieces & pages

Over the last season, Vaia had spent most of her time exploring the continent known as Boreas. She met new faces along the way, though none of them stuck with her which was unfortunate. Vaia was used to being alone though, so long as she found solace in the world around her. She easily became friends with the woodland creatures, happy to have their company even if they didn’t stay for long. She had learned so much during her time away from home… one of those lessons being to stay away from the north when it was the winter season.

Returning to her island and avoiding the snow should have been her decision. But now that she was so far north, she honestly had become lost. Braving the winter storms and going in what felt like endless circles, she couldn’t figure out which way was south. Even the stars were distorted by rolling waves of storm clouds, which diminished her means of navigation further. For now, she was forced to find refuge in this sparse forest, having bunkered down in an abandoned fox den for the last couple of days.

A blizzard had swept through the territory most of the night, but now at the mid-morning hour, the world outside of her temporary den was eerily silent. She emerged with an air of caution, sweeping her surroundings before exiting the den and shaking the dirt from her pelt. She only had a few moments of peace before a familiar sound caught her attention. The soft, pained wail of an animal in pain echoed nearby, bouncing off the pines in an eery fashion before it dissipated into the distance.

Vaia was drawn to the commotion, not out of predatory instinct but because she wanted to help. She found a young doe by herself, her leg caught between two jagged pieces of a fallen pine tree trunk. She approached with caution, softly calling to the doe in an attempt to soothe it “It’s o-okay, I’m here.” She hummed, trying to think of a way to free it. But, her presence sent the doe into a panicked frenzy, as it writhed and kicked until it pulled itself free with a sickening crack of a femur bone.

The girl dropped to the earth, terrified of the scene that unfolded in front of her, as she watched the doe whip around with a mangled leg to view its presumed attacker.“I-I won’t hurt you!”  She called out, trying to prove her case that she wasn’t a threat by showing submissive behavior and speaking in a soft tone. But it was no use.

A scream left her lips as the doe barred towards her, intent on fighting for its life by tramping her. She lept to the side, avoiding the hooves that were now trampling the ground where she had been lying down. “N-no, please!” She cried out, stumbling backward until her back hit the trunk of a pine tree. Fear washed over her, freezing her like a deer in headlights. How ironic!

"Vaia"