Wheeling Gull Isle hunting

Takes place some days after she meets Padma. @Zodiac - no need to match post length.

Strand limped around the island on three legs, ignoring the cold, light rain that washed over her pelt. The rain was good. It would help keep her wound clean, which was healing nicely. She was well enough to walk again, but she was afraid to put weight on her right leg in case it hurt or the action of moving it to walk caused the wound to open again. But she couldn’t bare to lay down any longer. Besides, she needed to eat some time. The pool of water she lay beside every day kept her from dehydration, and if she drank a lot, especially all at once, she would feel full for a while. But she was starving now and couldn’t afford to keep laying down forever. She needed to eat.

She’d wandered around the forest, looking for prey that was slow enough for her to catch without running, but such prey did not exist. She also hadn’t had much luck finding any kind of eggs to chow down on. So, she’d resorted to wandering the beach, going in a circle around the circumference of the island. The little fish that swam in the shallows were too fast for her limping form. They darted here and there around her legs. She gave up on them quickly, not wanting to exhaust herself. Eventually, she settled on hunting crabs, which was dangerous because of their sharp claws. But what choice did she have? It was eat crabs or starve to death until her shoulder was healed a bit more.

Luckily, the crabs were relatively slow. Unfortunately, their hard outer shells acted as a protectant, and their claws were killer. She had chased one down and now it was coming back in her direction, tired of running, she expected. “Yeah, come on!” she yelled, and stood her ground. It came nearer and nearer and at the last second she snapped at it, hoping to close her jaws on its carapace and crack it open. Instead, she yowled in pain as it pinched her on the nose with its big sharp claw and scuttled away. Strand sat down in the wet sand and kept yowling.