The Sunspire Where You Belong

The soft rustling turned into an audible scraping sound, and then a distinct thud. It was enough to set her bristling, hackles lifting between her shoulders and along her rump. Pinning a single ear while keeping the other forward, albeit lowered, to listen to whatever was ahead. She moved cautiously, lowering herself into a hunter's stance as she stalked across the shadows.

Ahead, the foliage looked disrupted, as if there had been some kind of a struggle. Guarded, her shoulders rolled forward defensively, she crept closer. To her surprise, the ground did not continue as a flat, reaching expanse. It dropped suddenly, just beneath the toes of her left front paw. She pulled back sharply, and a couple, small, loose stones rolled down the stone wall.

As her eyes roamed the pit, she was not surprised to see bones and carcasses (or perhaps just one very decimated carcass), in the early stages of decomposition. It was very likely that she had come across a mountain lion's cache. In that case, it was best not to linger, although she would have felt no remorse if she could have taken part of the stash for herself. 

About to turn around and leave, a golden gleam caught her attention. She did a double take, peering slyly into the shadows, and then realized that among the dead was something alive. "Hey!" She yipped, both startled and alarmed. Reasonable thinking might suggest that a sane wolf would have no business slinking around the bottom of a deep pit, so it was likely the poor beast had fallen in by accident.