Sleepy Fox Hollow The way she goes, Bubs

@Anselm

Given the season, Suzu felt inclined to leave Sapphique, as if to avoid catching an affliction. She had already made up her mind and had stated it before the meeting of women- but that didn't mean that her body wouldn't betray her when the time came. So when she sensed that Mireille had gone off in search of suitors, she figured her mother might soon as well. Part of her feared that it might trigger her own biological clock- so she made the decision to politely R-U-N-N-O-F-T and go to visit her brother, who had spoken of a glade in the mountains. 

She had caught seven sea urchins and had tucked them inside a rabbit's pelt to make it easier to carry the delicacy for him, as a treat. She made it as far as Felltree Marsh when one of them fell from the pouch as she slipped on a patch of ice, and cracked open on impact. She clicked her tongue, and fretted for no longer than two seconds before she pulled the spiny creature apart and devoured the eggs within. He would still be pleased with six- and so long as she left the shell behind, he'd have no way of knowing that she'd originally brought him seven. 

Six became five by the time she reached the Emberwood, where she stopped for the night and woke up ravenous. She realized how ill-suited she was for long-distance travel, having relied primarily on scavenging and beach-combing for her meals, rather than hunting land prey. Five became four when she convinced herself that four was enough for a gift, anyway. 

She skirted the edge of Arrow Lake, and began the ascent into the mountains there. While the sea urchins weren't necessarily too heavy, she decided to lighten the load when she stopped to catch her breath. She needed the nutrition- she wasn't acclimatized to this sort of altitude. She had spent her entire life at sea level- she would need the boost if she even wanted to make it to her brother. Thus, four became three. 

She took a wrong turn between the two mountain peaks, and ended up in a canyon. Out of frustration, she cracked another sea urchin open and fed on its eggs, leaving the shell behind in a place that was possibly the furthest a sea urchin had ever been from the ocean. At this point, the eggs started to taste a little bit...Off. 

By the time she made it to Sleepy Fox Hollow, that last portion of sea urchin eggs began to roll and squirm in her belly, making her grimace and growl. A few days of travel was too far to go for such things; she regretted not devouring them all earlier, perhaps when she had been on the lake where she could have smashed them open on the ice. Then she wouldn't have eaten the next one in the mountains that threatened to burst out of her by whichever was the path of least resistance. 

Fortunately, a life of eating seafood (often things that had simply washed up on the beach, already dead) made her a bit more capable of not losing her bowels completely. Instead, she was just left with severe cramps and wild, gurgling intestines. She moaned, and dropped the pelt, spilling the last two sea urchins onto the ground. She considered eating them now, regardless of the consequences- but another clench in her gut forced her to reconsider. 

She could tell Etienne had been nearby, sometime in recent times- but his scent was a bit more faint that she expected it should have been. She called out, then, hoping at least that he might be within earshot, and that he might have some tincture for rotten guts.