Grouse Thicket Skimming

It was a warm day, but the shade of the canopy above helped keep the sun off her dark pelt.  She'd spend the majority of the sunniest hours of the day hiding away here rather than roasting -- she'd start her trek again when things stopped being quite so bright and toasty, and maybe do a bit of hunting or something in the meantime.  But what was she doing here?  Vasa was very Not Interested in dealing with the grubs that were her younger siblings.  They were just so small and useless and that kind of weirded her out in a couple of ways that she didn't entirely understand herself.  But since Phoebe had gone and suddenly made herself scarce (which certainly seemed to be making her parents a bit nervous) Vasa had instantly volunteered to go take a look.  Anything to get away from being assigned to help out with the babies.

On her quest, she was skipping a very obvious first and second stop -- to stop by and see if Phoebe was hiding off at one of their sister packs.  But certainly if she just wanted a change of pace, she would have told the rest of the family or someone would have, right?  Hm.  Vasa would have, so that was good enough logic for her.  So instead, here she was heading northish on her grand quest.  Phoebe wasn't much of a wanderer, so certainly she couldn't have gone too far.  Probably got lost or something -- which is why she totally should have come with her on the trips, she'd have a much better sense of direction and would have been back in no time.