Blacktail Deer Plateau It ain't like midnight and cigarette smoke

Since Osprey was unable to hunt for herself, she had pushed her pride aside and raided the caches, while no one was looking. She tried to take as little as it was possible to just satiate the feeling of hunger, yet the primal need to fill in got the better of her and she ended up eating more. It was quite common now that after she had to fight nausea in order not to spew everything out again. The pain in her joints had not disappeared, but become more bearable. Mostly because she had got used to it and didn't pay that much attention to it. Aside from the obvious fact that she could not run anymore, just hobble. The extra weight didn't help much either.

Therefore it had come as a pleasant surprise one day, when she found that someone had left a fresh kill near the place she was staying. The same thing happened over the next few days and she had caught Dante's scent without seeing him in person. Until today. She had left her spot and was hovering near, eating bits and pieces of ground and little pebbles. The urge to do that may seem odd to the most, yet our bodies are no fools and they signal, when there is a deficiency. Probably had Osprey looked in the mirror, she would have noticed the slight yellowish tinge around the whites of her eyes and gums, but she did not. She coped with the weakness and lived without realizing that something bad was going on.

She had got tired and was returning to her sleeping area, when she saw the leader in the distance. She stopped, contemplating briefly, whether she should let him go or meet and talk right away, then she decided for the latter. Moving faster was met with complaining and aching feet, as well as loss of her breath. Yet she charged onwards. "Hey," she called out to him, being within the distance of him hearing her, yet having to give in and sit down to rest. "Wait, please!"