Sticks and Stones - Ugh

Walk | "Talk" | think

This wasn’t how things were supposed to start off.  Rudy had never been to this area and while he didn’t have high hopes of finding wolves out here the young wolf would have felt an idiot if the answer had been so close to home and he hadn’t checked.  Rudyard glanced back west in the direction of home and then looked away.  He’d do a quick search in this area for wolves and if none were found he would leave fast.  

Rudy had to get some distance before others realized he was missing.  In theory no one would realize he was even gone until Rudy was ready for them to know.  Still, it would be a pain if he ran into a packmate who had gone to scour the area for him.  

Ice and snow that had made their way to Auster had the creek deeper and wider than it would normally be.  Ice crusted the edges on both sides and Rudy could see two beaver damns from where he was.  The creek went on aways which begged the question of just how many damns were there even out here?  The motley grey wolf lowered his head and stretched out his neck to get a drink of water from the creek.  

Once he finished drinking he walked alongside the creek scenting around it.  Wolves needed water and this was certainly a spot one might seek out frequently to slake their thirst.  The boy was focusing so much on the task at hand he didn’t pay attention to the sound of cracking wood.  The beavers weren’t use to the creek running harder as it was now and a piece of a damn wasn’t holding up.  One large bottom piece of wood snapped out of position and it caused other pieces of wood to slip as well.

Rudy looked up just in time to see a log just about to slam into his head.  Rudy leaped aside but another stick slapped hard into a leg.  It didn’t cause serious damage but it did cause him to stumble when he should have been getting farther onshore. Another branch hit the leg and a branch hit that branch and well – it kept up.

Rudy was lucky enough that it was only one leg that had taken damage.  As far as he could tell the damage wasn’t even that bad, probably some bruising.  The first branch to hit had done so solidly and protected him from the majority.  However, Rudy’s back leg was quite thoroughly wedged between the sticks and didn’t seem to want to come out.

What the hell?  Oh man, he had to get out of this before anyone found him.  Both so that he didn’t get taken home and so he wouldn’t end up embarrassed as hell.  The last reason was petty considering how many horrible things were going on at home but emotions were rarely logical.