Verdant Basin you are a child of the cosmos, and ruler of the skies

The tiny, seemingly hollow-boned wolf usually avoided stepping outside the protection of the forest for fear that she would not make it back before dawn, but when she arrived at the large lake, she found that it was surrounded by trees and hills. Good. She would most likely find some animal den before morning to dig out and make bigger and hide in until the sun went down again. What she was not expecting was the scent of wolf to fill her nose. She had not come across another wolf almost two months, and the smell of one now frightened her. What would she do? What would she say? Would they be friendly towards her, or treat her as her siblings and father had — as a weakling? Or would they treat her a precious flower to be doted upon, as her mother had? She shook her head. Both outcomes were bad. She simply wanted to be treated as an equal.

Still. She realized that she was being anxious about outcomes that might never happen. She couldn’t even see the wolf yet, due to her nearsightedness. If they wanted company, they would have to come to her. She had come here to hunt rabbits in the fading light and get a drink from the lake. Perhaps instead she could hunt waterfowl? She padded closer to the water and listened to the sounds of dusk — the insects chirping, the wind, the rain. The rain… She would have to act quickly if she wanted to eat tonight, for the rain would drive most prey into their burrows. She scented the area, trying to pick up some animal smell before the rain washed it all away.

She heard a rustle to her right and turned her head without moving her body. There was a rabbit far too close to her, having got caught off guard by her approach. It stared at her in fear, as some deer will do as well. She rose ever so slowly to her paws and then sprang suddenly! Too slow! The rabbit dashed away into the undergrowth, disappearing. Evening cursed in annoyance. Now she had scared all nearby prey away and would have to move left or right around the lake to find unsuspecting creatures to try and hunt.