Blackfoot Forest kvet

for @Vector :P

It took Ivev forever to drag herself back to the brackish den hidden away by the small, diluted stream. It was a chilly but clear evening, and red light filtered down through the interlocking leaves above. The forest had always been rather dark, and now the long autumn dusk lengthened the shadows of the trees and created a feeling of abandonment. Ivev wanted nothing more than to see the blue sky as she succumbed to the pain all over her body, for in Blackfoot forest she felt utterly alone.

Branches devoid of green as they prepared themselves for winter stabbed her gaping wound on her shoulder like dark knives, tearing away bloody tufts of fur. She had long since giving up limping, and let her back leg drag dejectedly along the ground. Ivev took longer than needed to find her den, her mind clouded and foggy as she took several wrong turns. At least a stroke of luck was on her side; the female stopped to pull up the leaves of wild strawberry. Carrying them in her mouth, Ivev gingerly entered the den, eyes shut against the pain as the arctic wolf lowered herself into the hollow. Grinding up the leaves in her teeth, she spat them out onto her shoulder.
She didn't know about her leg, as it was a mess of tendons and bleeding veins. Her mouth was open and panting against the pain as it continued to send ribbons that scalded her mind. Spent, her skull dropped, defeated, to the den's ground.