Walking the Edge

Walk | Talk | Think

Wind rustled the mid-tone grey wolf's thickening pelt as she stood upon the lip of the ravine, two-toned eyes staring deep into the leafy, green middle. Any other day she might have gone down into it to see what the base of it was like, curious and willing to sate that curiosity by finding out the answers to the questions her mind posed. But the trek down the side of it would have been tricky. Brambles and rocks and thick shrubs coated the whole thing, leaving thin, winding trails that would have been tricky enough to maneuver for any sound wolf. The sides were steep in more places than they were gentle, and there was always the matter of climbing back up the rising sides once Ashtoreth was done. Any other day it might have been no trouble at all.

But this day was different. This day was one of many that had followed an unexpected, unwarranted attack upon her nearby a river during a harrowing thunderstorm. She should have seen it coming. The wolf who had attacked her had appeared incredibly jumpy from the start, and rather than take any real note of it she had chalked it up to the storm. How wrong she had been. They had only wandered a short way before he turned on her, catching her off guard and pinning her to the ground, only to tear into her leg the same second she nearly escaped him. By sheer luck alone he had turned and fled, leaving her only with a battered leg. She still held it tenderly, a little more weight placed upon her toes as she stood, but it was still on the mend. Were it not for the surprisingly kind offer of another stranger to tend to the wound after she had made it back home it would have probably been in a worse state than it currently was. No doubt it needed more care from a trained healer, but Valhalla had been short of healers recently. For this reason, she was grateful her leg was healing at all.

Another strong gust of autumnal wind whipped past her, making her gold and purple eyes close momentarily until it had passed. Looking down into the ravine, Ash tried not to let her condition get the better of her. Her lip was becoming less pronounced, she could actually place weight on the leg now, and the scars were no longer as mangled and stomach turning as they had once been. There was plenty to be happy about, but still a good mood evaded her. Gaze lowering listlessly to the uneven ground, the lean little grey wolf turned away from the ravine and began walking carefully along its edge, still limping though her injured hind leg touched the ground and supported some of her weight with each step. Progress, she reminded herself, looking forward to the day she might have full use of her leg again. She would need to drag Thane on a hunt for something big and impressive to celebrate mobility again.