Big Salmon Lake i'm starving, darling

Another day, sun rising and warming his coat, another slow fall towards winter.

Sable knew, as all creatures did, that to be alone come the winter was to be a death sentence of the highest order. He raised his head from the protective circle of his tail, shivering briefly at the touch of cold to his nose and his face. He looked around the forest, separating him from the shine of another lake just past the trees. With a grunt and an upward shove of his body, he stood, shook himself free of pine needles and remnants of their cones, and began striding.

Midday became afternoon by the time he made it out of the trees, nose in the air to hunt for water. Green fell from the sky to the reflective surface of lapping liquid, and his mouth watered just a bit to see it. The boy strode until he was up to his knees in water, beginning to drink after a moment of glancing about. Once he drank his fill, he sloshed further, cleaning out his undercoat and the parts of him he could not reach, ducking his head under the water and throwing it back out in a motion akin to a horse or deer.