Duck Lake now that i'm old, i sing for it

AW but also tagging @Laurel @Xan @Reigi @Blondine (i know you're injured) in case they want to hop in. 1st part of post is set today, but the rest is set 2/5/18 (major storm warning in the park)

the storm that growled along the eastern rim of the horizon grew in its fury as the day lengthened. a cheerless smoke-grey pall shrouded the woods and the world became silent. indra noticed the change in the forest's activity quite quickly, but by the time she realized it was dangerous to be afoot it was too late for her to make it home. fear grappled her heart as she realized her folly - she had underestimated the strength of the storm while overestimating her own stamina. it had only been a month since ithrik had attacked her, and while the infection had abated and she was largely mobile, she was still weak. it was too late now to do anything but hide -- she would be snowbound until the storm broke.

in quiet panic the girl sought shelter beneath the collasped span of a fallen douglas. the trunk was flat against the ground with its boughs upright while its pines were weighed down by snow. she scrabbled underneath the fanning pines and looked up at the roiling sky as white snow fell in a soundless fury.

***

the storm did not abate, and the snow piled for hours around her. wind came in shrieking gusts and the snowdrifts encroached upon her small enclosure. she beat the snow back and it quickly consumed her huddled form, swathing the entire length of the fallen tree in a muted blanket of white snow. she was left with no soul for miles and the hours slowly trickled into days before the snowfall cleared and indra's hollowed tunnel became illuminated by muted blue light. indra tentatively shouldered through the snow until she broke the surface and re-emerged in the realm of nothing but blinding white. the girl winced as the brilliance of the freshly  fallen snow met her eyes, which took time to adjust to the snow-glare.

indra thought her prospects bleak. the snow was well beyond her hips and she knew she could not afford much more energy be spent. she had not eaten for days and her injury presented great hardship - enough that leaping through heavy snow was out of the question. a feeling of sinking desperation filled her stomach as she weighed what seemed to be the ever ominous choices she faced.