It had been almost two moons now, since Esma had lost sight of her home and was unable to find a way back to it. The thing she had feared the most had happened. Lost in an unfamiliar world that felt so big to her. The sky in the plains was vast and never-ending, she would often look up to make sure that it would not fall on her head at some point. There were little known scents and very few of those belonged to other wolves. But even meeting a brother of kin would not do her any good. She had seen some from afar, but had not dared to approach. Strangers that did not belong to the Riverclan's ranks scared her.
The sight of the forest line at the end of the meadow gave her hope that this was her home and she run towards it eagerly, without realizing that the distance between her and Riverclan was increasing. She realized her mistake the moment she recognized that the trees were hardly anything like she knew. They were not her friends, they felt foreign and unreal. Then the disappointment was overshadowed by fear, when she caught sight of a stranger walking nearby. Having nothing better to do, she crouched, practically flattened herself to the ground, hoping that the other would not catch sight of her. The only problem was that, while her dappled coat would be good to camouflage her during autumn or early spring, where the various shades of browns and yellows of the old grass and leaves interspersed with patches of melting snow, now she stood out starkly against the white background.
Esma had had very little interaction with strangers. Nearly all of the time it involved her spying her mom or any other Riverclan adult dealing with them. On few occasions they became part of tue group. In others - much to Esma's relief - they left and never returned.
Therefore she was not prepared to meet and greet the giant stranger and she would have very much preferred, if he had ignored her and left. Now, however, he had initiated and she felt the pressure to repsond. Because that's, what kids do, when they are addressed by adults, right? They have to be polite and well-mannered. In the back of her mind the "stranger-danger" bell rang dimly, but she had always imagined that all of the dangerous people in the world were obvious.
The man was large, but her fear of him made him appear even bigger than in reality. Esma gulped, sighed and attempted to straighten herself from the crouch, though her joints felt stiff and almost paralyzed. "Whh...ho a..a.are you?" she stammered.
The man did not reply, instead he leaned closer to Esma, who in turn flattened herself against the ground to avoid him touching her. His silence scared her and his sudden expression of dominance made her avoid his gaze completely and hope that he would step back and give her much needed space.
So far the world outside the Riverclan had proved to be as worse as she had imagined. The only difference was that she could leave daydreams behind any time she wanted, but the her miserable situation in reality was there to stay.
Esma was very hesitant to follow the large brute. All her better judgement and instincts screamed for her to take off again. But then she had been on her own for too long already and, though naturally not fond of strangers, she did not want to lose the sight of this one either.
Therefore she let him walk off and began to follow him at a safe distance, stopping frequently and looking over her shoulder constantly, ready to bolt at any moment.
Many times Esma pondered bolting and disappearing and this reflected in her movements all the way to the place the strange big man called his home. She was following him in a half-crouch, tail-tucked to her belly, ears drawn back and her head turning nervously left to right. Often she would stop in her tracks and lie down, panting and trying to calm down.
Often she would wonder, if this whole trek was worth the mental and physical struggle, and only when the man threw a piece of meat her way, did she consider for a moment that he might not have bad intentions in mind. Still she waited until he retreated, watching carefully his every movement. Then with her gaze still trained on the guy, she slowly came to the gift, grabbed it in a swift moment and ran to put distance between them again.
Once feeling relatively safe she began to chew and gnaw and pick on the frozen piece, pausing time from time to look up at the man, just checking, if he was staying, where she had left him.