Midnight smelt it at last, the pain in her shoulder spiked and she shuddered to a halt on the boundary. The wounds, three gashes on her front right leg were red and hot, here eyes where glazed with pain and her body drooped from exhaustion her tail dusting the ground behind her. The only thing keeping her standing was hope, she was desperate, Midnight was no healer, knowing only a little of forest herbs nothing of the plants in the north. The bear had come out of no where desperate for a meal after its long hibernation to old and slow to catch its own it had smelt hers and come to claim it.
She flinched violently throwing herself clear of memories tainted red her haunches sat in the snow her body held up by one paw whilst her injured leg sat suspended above the ice she tried to hitch herself more upright with limited success, the bear had hit her just once throwing her out of its path. She had hit a tree and everything had gone black. The thorn bush had saved her life, when she had woken the bear was gone, as was the young calf she had caught, but the branches around her where broken and crushed where the bear had tried to reach her desperate for more food, luck was the only reason she was here and not currently dead in the snow.
For three days she had fought against the inevitable, she told herself it was fine it would heal itself the pain would stop, but it hadn't it had gotten worse and she was forced to swallow her pride, it was then she remembered the pack wolf who had wondered threw at the start of winter who had planned to move further north, to find his pack. It was a risk but it had been her only choice; it had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she sat on the border she was not so sure. She was a wounded wolf what could she possibly offer a pack in this state, they would kill her. 'but if I stay out here i'll die anyway' she thought.
For a moment she sat torn, then wincing slightly as the movement pulled on injured shoulder muscles, she lifted her head and called, it was a weak call low and plaintive, ?I am here, please help me? it rung around her for a second then died off in a soft whimper her head falling to rest against her chest eyes closed. What would come next she could not guess.
