Blackfoot Forest Dark was the night when our tale was begun

There was no sleep to be found through the cries. It would have been logical for her to find a way immediately out of these woods, but she had no energy left from a full day's travel with nothing to eat. Even if she couldn't sleep, at least she didn't have to walk anymore; she thought that maybe she'd even welcome death!

But there suddenly came the press of new footsteps, heavier than anything that had passed her since she'd begun occupying the tree. The closer they came, the faster her heart beat. It began to pound so loudly that it drowned out the sound of the steps, and only one thought could now form in the girl's head: I don't want to die!

The "beast" cried out, bracing and angry, but it was not the horrific screech of the monster she expected. Instead she was met with a voice she recognized. Not in a personal sense, but she knew the tones to be wolf, and feminine at that. It was not some foreign ghoul or haunter come to gobble her up, but another of her kind...

She wasn't sure how much better this made her feel, if it made her feel any better at all.

The cries of the foxes died down as most in the vicinity scattered. The girl stared out fearfully from her hiding spot, bright and alarmed eyes casting an unwitting shine in the dark that gave away her position almost immediately. Her back rippled when she realized she'd been spotted, and her legs automatically began to shove her backwards until her spine was touching the walls of the trunk.

She didn't say anything— not even in feeble warning— as she felt very much trapped and disadvantaged, to such a degree she'd been rendered completely mute. Perhaps hoping the danger would simply... be on its way.