Tormented Tarns Orion and His Belt

she was weak still, but surviving. somehow. by the grace of her lord perhaps - she would not doubt Him - but whatever the case, she was alive. the poison had lasted days, but the effects were limited. a shortness of breath, a persistent ache to her muscles and joints, some dizziness... it wasn't the worst she had experienced. hosannah's tail had not recovered. it would not, unless gifted with healing powers by a higher power, which even she knew was not something the lord would grant. she lived by scrounging meals from nothingness - hunting alongside the mountain when she had the energy, which was fleeting, or scavenging. with some luck she had discovered a burrow of mice still sleeping through the winter, and had gorged herself.

her belly wasn't full, but full enough. and there was still light to guide her. the stranger that had led her this far was gone, vanished back from whence they came, so to hosannah she had been saved by the daystar alone; the stranger being an agent of her lord, more or less an angel. she was back on the path now. wounded, weary, but resilient. she would need a certain level of tenacity to survive the next few days of chilled water, swampland, and strangeness -- and in delving through the wilderness, she began her migration.

perhaps, had she been of sounder mind and body, hosannah would have noticed the stranger in her midst.