Sleepy Fox Hollow I am Groot

@Tonravik

After her foray to the east, Wildfire decided to head home sooner than previously planned, if only because she knew it would be a pleasant surprise for her family. She knew her parents weren't the biggest fans of her wandering ways and that Nightjar and Raven both felt on edge while they awaited her safe return. The idea of surprising them prompted her to try to take a shortcut up and over the mountains rather than back around them—that, and the explorer within that seemed to grow hungrier and more daring day by day, no matter how attached she felt to her home and family.

Wildfire found herself in a hollow between the crags, a summery little forest that smelled very interesting indeed. She didn't have time to track the peculiar (and strong) scent now, though. She weaved in between the trees, enjoying the safe, quiet feel of this place, before emerging on the little oasis's far side. She began to climb again, only for her klutziness to finally come bite her in the ass after days without incident: one of her hind feet slipped and she tumbled back to the forest floor, conscious but winded.

While she lay there, gathering her bearings and trying to catch her breath, something flitted past and Wildfire jerked instinctively, leaping clumsily to her feet. With a stitch still squeezing her chest, she found herself pouncing a smaller critter of some sort, one with reddish fur just like hers. When she somehow managed to pin it to the ground, it kicked and squirmed. Wildfire stared down at a face not unlike her mother's or her own, her smudged snout wrinkling slightly when she realized it was the source of the pungent odor in the air here.