The joyful life was a good one. The pursuit of virtue, the abstention from vice, it made her life simple but bright. Alo feared no evil, and she had little in the way of worry that showed on her brow. Deep down she had the fears any other did, but she held a simple sense of contentment that made her days worth living. Wapun Meadow was the very heart of things for the female, but like any other beast she often felt the urge to wander. Duck Lake was a territory she had come to know, and if Wapun Meadow had not been so dear she would have happily claimed it as her own.
The grove of quaking aspen made a wonderful refuge. Quietly the silver and cream female stalked through the shaded grove, eyes locked on the flock of ducks that paddled quietly around the nearby water. Hunger was not her concern at the moment — the faint red remnants of the rabbit she had brought down earlier in the day still clung to her muzzle. No, Alo was seeking joy, pure and simple. Muscles tensed as she made her way, launching forward and running gleefully towards the water, sending spray and flora everywhere. The ducks erupted into chaotic quacking and a flurry of feathers and began to rise from the water and she burst into a cheery laugh, tail wagging as she watched the fowl disperse in the light of the sun.
Zombie clutched the femur tightly in her jaws, her teeth settling into the grooves that had formed in the old bone over time. Once, it had been tugged from a fresh kill, thick and succulent meat attached. She had eaten it greedily at the time, though she had not truly known what hunger was back then. All too quickly, however, the remaining femur represented the last source of sustenance she would have. Too young to hunt for herself, Zombie should have died when her parents were killed...
She and the femur had been through a lot together. Though she should have died, Zombie was still walking the earth.
When she smelled—and then heard—the approach of another, the yearling ducked behind an outgrowth of reeds. Silently, she willed herself to be far enough downwind that she would not be noticed. Zombie wasn't used to others, and she wasn't quite sure she was ready for another interaction so soon. Instead, her electric green eyes watched with faint curiosity as the older female leapt towards the quacking fowl.
As the ducks scattered, leaving Zombie a perfect view of the other—duckless—she lifted her head in both surprise and an inflamed sense of curiosity. After a moment of hesitation, the yearling marched toward the other to halt a few meters away, at which point she carefully laid down the femur—like a child might lay down a doll—and placed a protective paw over it.
"How do you stay alive, if you can't hunt?" she questioned, slightly impassioned. "How do your bones not show?"
| Grey and white, splashed with rusty shades, the younger female looked as if good meals did not happen to her very often. Bright eyes peered out from the younger one's face, vibrantly green, reminding Alo of her own. The question from the yearling surprised her and Alo's head tipped delicately to the side before her jaws parted in a gentle, easygoing grin. "I can hunt — in fact I think I'm rather good at it. I wasn't trying to hunt though....just like making them fly. My name's Alo, what's yours?"
The yearling interested her, with her protective paw over the old and indistinct femur, and her skinny visage. Alo was a bleeding heart if there ever was one, she could not help but want to aid all of the wounded and weary of the world. It was her nature to care, her nature to be maternal and kind. "Are you hungry?" |
"I'm Zombie," she responded after a moment, watching the female with faint suspicion. "I'm always hungry."
Zombie was a strange word, it conjured up ghouls and gargoyles and all manner of ghastly visage. The female before Alo seemed perfectly kind, if not wary, and she simply nodded with a light grin at the female's introduction. "Hunger is no one's friend, it chases your heels and it never seems to go away, huh?" She had known her worn and weary days, just like any beast, but the Wapun Meadow was generous and she wanted for little. Her few followers aided as well, and she only hoped to grow larger and stronger together.
The path she walked in life was one of charity and generosity. If the girl was always hunger, than Alo could not help but feel moved to aid her. "I could probably catch you a few fish, if you wouldn't mind a free meal, y'know." Some were too proud for charity, and she would not force it on any soul.
The girl would follow Alo with as much loyalty as she could muster, her starved heart won over by the generosity of the woman.
Zombie had no way of knowing that it would soon break, when Alo abandoned her as though she meant nothing. Just like all the others.