Sun Mote Copse The Art of the Dinner Date

She guessed wrong, though Sugar didn't waste any time fretting about that. She listened curiously as Wraen explained how a tree's branches were like a wolf's fur. The pup immediately thought of @Crow, who always seemed to shed so much more than anybody else in the family. Her lips twitched and then Wraen was motioning for her to follow and have a look at something. Eagerly, the little naturalist obeyed.

The Sovereign stripped the bark from a twig, exposing the green beneath. Sugar bent in closer to look, pink nose wriggling at the fresh, raw scent that hit her nose even as Wraen explained how cutting into a tree could cost it its life. When she drew up again, her attention went to the tree just beside them and she marveled that something as simplistic as a deep cut could butcher such a magnificent, towering flora.

The more she pondered on it, though, the more sense it made. She had yet to fell much prey, though she knew that killing an animal for food required cutting it deeply to let out its blood. Sugar wondered: did trees bleed? Her black eyes fell to the twig Wraen had wrought, which showed no signs of such leakage. Other, smaller plants didn't bleed, she knew from experience. Sometimes some moisture oozed from them, though it was always clear: simply water, as far as Sugar could tell.

Lost in thought for a short while, Sugar eventually gathered her thoughts and posed another question unto her leader. "Will all the leaves fall off all the trees?" she wondered, trying to imagine what the copse might look like come this mysterious wintertime.