Stone Circle Here I be

when she woke the black doe had left her and a bitter cold had seeped in.

lean times, this. but the girl had survived worse - her entire life a tableau of hardship no scroll could summarize. she picked at chunks of frozen snow. she gnawed bits of exhausted bones.

sometimes she woke like this and didn't remember what lead up to her dozing off. other times she stared and tried to recount backwards: where was ana? dinah? mama?

a jolt then as she remembered mama was dead.

now she came across another wolf like her. skinny and tired. maybe worse. and young -- far too young -- to be beholden to life's injustice.

the girl came forward at a carrion-bird trawl, eyes upon the figure with quiet interest.