Redtail Rise Like no one ever was,

Something moved within the underbelly of the forest. Requiem couldn't be certain of it, as the sound came and went so sporadically; but he thought something was moving through the fallen leaves. It was a crunchy sound which rasped, stopped, and rasped again; and he listened intently. His panting stopped as he held his breath, and his ears held their forward position (but, he did slowly turn his head as if that would help). When the sound came a final time he had some bearing as to where but not what.

Slurping his tongue back in to his head, the boy was on his feet and bounding in search of the thing. He didn't need to go far - just beyond the pile of sticks was a pile of puppy, all skin and bones, and he almost missed her for how frail and surreal she appeared. She could've been fashioned from the very sticks of the midden, for all he knew!

His path moved to bypass her sorry shape, as Requiem only glanced at her, and he did not recognize her as anything more than debris for that instant.