Arrow Lake every breath of borrowed time is heavy in my chest.

"Encounters a... Scavenger." Rolled for myself.

It wasn't yet midday but the sky had lost its lustre beneath a blanket of abyssmal clouds, and their presence caused an increase to the humidity; the boy had no words for it, but he felt cloistered by the pressure in the air and was eager to find some way to manage through it. While he was typically in the presence of one of his siblings and rough-housing with them for all it was worth, in this moment he was alone and content in his solitude. He trailed along the lake's edge for an hour with his head down and senses engaged, mouthing at large rocks jutting from their spaces in the shallows or scratching at some of the reeds growing off-kilter in the soil; little things to keep him occupied while he explored.

He perused the edge of the lake for a bit after that, huffing air from his nose and causing a spray of bubbles to cascade and break the calm; the taste of the water on his lips was precious, and prompted him to linger a little longer for a few licks — then turn away, a spasm of disinterest brought on by a shift in the wind. The boy thought he could smell blood, except it wasn't fresh. It was a dull mineral-like scent which caused his belly to clench and limbs to stiffen on approach, but he roamed closer and closer, hunting for it. There was a smattering of something across the silver grass which he investigated, nipped at, but could not decypher. The boy paused then, watching his surroundings and listening with an intense stillness he'd never managed before.

Something - a force, a creature maybe - grew so furious with his presence that it erupted from the underbrush and nearly took his head off in its frenzy; the movement gave rise to an instinctive need to chase, to grab, and as the creature attempted to use that moment of confusion for an escape, Mesa was erupting in youthful snarls and gnashing teeth to compensate.