Larksong Grotto Moves west, flowers' shadows

Ooh, wanna be naturalist buddies?

There was another youngster moving through the grotto, also enjoying the small remnants of summer that still endured here, tucked snugly inside a protective barrier of tree trunks. 

After conferring with his mother, Veteran had learned that the "zombie deer" were not harmful to wolves, and so he had made it his personal mission to track down and kill any of the infected animals he could find. And if he were a sick deer on the taiga, this was where he would retreat. 

The boy stepped quietly, listening for any sounds of movement in the still air of the grotto. He soon picked up the sounds of the other child shuffling around in the underbrush, and he quickly set to tracking down his target. 

He was surprised, but not altogether disappointed, when he came upon the source of the noise and it was not, in fact, a sick deer but another boy much like himself. 

"Um, hi. What are you doing?" he inquired curiously, stepping out from behind a mossy tree trunk.