Cedar Sweep i set myself on fire

It had been a few days now since the yearling had run from home, perhaps something close to a week. After having some time to consider her situation, she had managed to put her numbing grief aside so as to focus on where she was going and what she needed to do in order to survive. The first was a tough question, but answering the second came naturally; her aching stomach told her food was the top priority. Of course, actually getting the food would prove a challenge as well.

With a pang in her heart, she acknowledged that she had very little knowledge of hunting, and if she hoped to be succesful, would need to really rake her memories for tips. Surely they had mentioned something at some about point? And if not, surely she could just use common sense to figure it out... Suposedly, as a noble creature near the top of the food chain, it should be in her instincts...

Eventually, she concluded sensing her prey came first, meaning she'd need to put her nose to the ground and keep at it until something wafted towards her. Rabbit and vole were really the only scents she knew well enough to recognize, but in her small world, they were two of the only three prey animals in existance, so she didn't really consider the odds. She just kept her nose down and expected to find something soon enough.

Unfotunately, the task was a lot harder than she'd ever anticipated. So many smells found her nose - various vegiation, trees, earthy things, a foul smell from the bog she didn't know of, smaller predators - that it was almost impossible to keep track of and sift through them all. Sometimes she thought she could smell rabbit, and she hopefully perk up, but the scent would fade just as quickly as it came, replacing her gleeful expression with a pout of disapointment.

This is harrrrrd, she internally whined.

A few hours of fruitless tracking passed before she discovered another scent, one that stopped her in her tracks and made her eyes go wide: wolf. Despite her attempts at shutting the memories out, her mind instantly flashed back to that day, reminding her of the strange wolf scent all over her parent's bodies... She'd known the wolves responcilbe had had a reason for doing it, but nevertheless, as a naive child, it instilled a sense of paranoia in her that all strange wolves sought to harm others; no one, aside from her late parents, could be trusted.

She forced herself to snap out of the transe she'd fallen into, swiftly whipping her head this way and that as she tried to determine the source of the scent. Her breathing steadily picked up along with her heartbeat, fear suddenly clutching her and making it hard to think rationally. The smells got tangled up again, and she couldn't tell where the stranger was.

Run, a voice in her head quietly whispered.

Needing no further motivation, she took off in the first direction she laid eyes on, and in her panicky state, couldn't prevent herself from ramming straight into the stranger. She gave a yelp of surprise as she rebounded backwards, her rump landing on the ground with a painful thump!