Dawnlark Plains Don't Accept the Truth

Anyone, friend or foe

A blanket of ice coated the fields. The area hadn't received fresh snow for at least a day, so Sofi's paws crunched rather obviously while she tried to find a good patch for hunting. Eating seemed more difficult than it ever had before. Naivete had told her that upon finding the Teekon Wilds, she would be able to eat easily and never go hungry. Quite the opposite turned out to be true.

The area was thriving with wolves. Where there were wolves, her kind were sparse at best. In fact, Sofi had not even gotten so much as a sniff of another of the same species. This "paradise" was quickly turning out to be no more than a wolf-laden Hell of her own making, for hunger prevented her hunt successes 90% of the time.

So it turned out to be true with voles. The area was littered with them, but their burrows were entirely beneath the snow. Sofi could hear them clearly, but nearly every pounce resulted in no more than a mouthful of ice. During the four hours she remained on the plains, she caught only one; it was not enough to even recoup the hunt's energy, never mind satiate her.

Come the middle of the day, there she was: a lone coyote curled in a tight ball, trying to sleep but unable due to wind and the incessant grumbling of her stomach. To sit in the open was dangerous in an area fraught with large predators, but she was giving up for the day.