Tit for Tat, This or That

Things were different, but that was alright. Life continued on, and Ember'd be damned if she was gonna let it leave her behind. The girl had gone back to her routine of pretending to be an adult, jovially circling around the pack's territory to keep its scent markers strong and maintain tabs on the fellow wildlife, both prey and rival, that filtered through and around the domain. Today, company was lacking, and she dearly wished for that to change but was unwilling to call any of her pack mates from their own business just to cull her boredom.

Alone didn't use to bother her so much. Now she hated the inside of her own head, the thoughts that were doubtful and sad and refused to let sunlight chase them away. It took socialization to distract her from them, but she was becoming more self-conscious the older she got about bothering the others. They had worse problems, after all. If it wasn't the adults have responsibilities, it was the fact that @Nalda and @Arion were both pretty much orphans now. None of them needed to deal with Ember on top of it all.

A sigh fled her jaws as she tried to shake these wistful and self-deprecating thoughts of the company she missed from her mind. It occurred to her that maybe she should take a break, go exploring, but just at that moment something caught her eye. Was that... a raccoon tail? And no raccoon? It was so pretty, who would just leave it there?