Phoenix Maplewood the healing of nations

there was nothing here. for all the beauty she had seen among the trees - their stark white bodies, the great spread of their boughs - the leaves had been devoured, and everything that once littered the forest floor had been erased. the dirt held nothing. so the woman continued her search, but it was clear to her that such efforts were futile. she would not find what she sought here. a disatissfied chuff ebbed from her lips, causing a line of dirt to rise up as dust and coat her face. she recoiled from it and squeezed shut her golden eyes, and waited a second before resuming her hunt. when hosannah looked about again, she saw the flicker of movement between the trees, and grew still with rapt attention; but she only needed to watch for a moment before realizing it was not prey, but another wolf. she sighed again, and licked the dust from her lips.

you look hungry, she commented vaguely. assuming this dark creature was hungry was like saying a fish was wet - and the troubles of the world would continue unabated. she slunk towards him with a curious twist of her body, as if she had been going one way and then changed her mind mid-motion. snake-like and sinuous, hosannah watched him readily. is this your forest?