Swiftcurrent Creek macaw

she is trespassing :o

what did her sisters care if she flirted around the forest with cloud singer? it had harmed no one, their fumblings; it would not have even ruined her for marriage.

and yet one of them had told grandmother about the secret place muskrat kept, the mossy bed with its curtain of tall grass.

she might have shed a tear, were she not battling the worst pain of her life. a silver bear had chased her on the plains. she had rolled her right hind-ankle with a resounding snap, but miraculously the bear had slowed, then turned away.

muskrat had kept her life at great cost. starvation was quick, thirst faster. she scavenged daily, her pelt growing so tangled with muck that she was smeared grey now with oily dirt.

looking and smelling more like her namesake, she limped without hesitation across the borders of a pack, gutting the first cache she found and devouring its contents, shoulders hunched sharply and the yellowsun eyes blazed in defiance. whatever came, muskrat accepted, and prepared to fight.