Porcupine Ridge your darkness is shining

it had been an accident. 

one minute she was rooting through the remains of a cache, and the next moment was laid out on the ground, visceral fluid seeping in a halo around her skull. 

a sapling that had died two winters before, held tentatively in the balance by dry-rotted roots up until the moment ava leaned against it. heavy enough to knock her down, and lay her out there for some time until she came back too. 

that had been two weeks ago now; the wound healed over, and her senses returned. but still much too weak to return to the shores or navigate proud sea water. 

ava moved directionless, following her nose for food out of desperation. 

today, she paused at a rich deposit of scat marking a hidden boundary; the scent of doe meandered past, but ava knew better than to pursue.