Come Play

As the little predator skirted around another massive trunk, she wondered why these trees had the raspy scraggly red bark on them. As her back brushed the branches of a spindly sapling while she moved, she wondered why here the undergrowth was lush but the Sparse Pines of her home were naked and bare around each skyward trunk.

She heard a burst of noise as her eyes spied a snow leaden fern. Its fronds dipped low under the wet weight and browning along the edges. She dived underneath it to pass under the fronds but in doing so she launched the clods of snow up and alerting her pursuer of her direction. Shit! Some ghost she was! Xina clung to the shadows under another fern then launched over the bare ground across a clearing! A peal of laughter rang high in the air as she felt her pursuer come within inches of her tail! Another massive treetrunk came up on her right and she dove down toward the roots. A shadowy escape clear to her eyes among the twisting roots of a fallen tree. She dug into the cedar earth and flung pine needles and dirt behind her as she found the opening to the larger trunk! But it was a dead end!

She spun around and snarled baring her teeth at the stranger, suddenly the fun petered out when she could no longer hide nor escape.