Blackberry Fields Freedom comes with a price

Backdated for the 5th Moderate snow -11 ° F, -24 ° C

@”Belladonna”

After a playful romp in the snow, Holly had flopped into a snowdrift to roll around in for a bit before simply laying in it as she caught her breath. Said breath came out in puffs of smoke, drifting up towards the sky softly before dissipating from sight. Holly always liked to pretend she was a dragon in these instances, with smoke billowing from her mouth and nose as if she was ready to breath fire at someone.

Finally, once feeling rested enough and having caught her breath, Holly pushed herself up and away from the snow drift and shook the snow from her fur. Her stomach was grumbling slightly but nothing she couldn’t handle for a bit longer as she cast her eyes around. She hoped to maybe spot some rabbit tracks or something but after half an hour of searching, knew there was no luck for her. The light snow falling would easily cover up any tracks and she couldn’t scent anything in the air or on the snow covered ground.

Well, that was the life of a loner and she guessed she was just gonna have to go hungry for the day. It wasn’t an uncommon feeling to her now, after having traveled a few months without a proper meal each day. She still managed to scavenge carcasses here and there and still managed to catch things most days but prey was often reclusive and there wasn’t always a already downed carcass nearby to feast on and she understand that.

Huffing slightly, Holly decided she’d simply find a suitable place to curl up and sleep away the minor hunger pains away for a few hours.

The benefits of pack life were abundant, and not least that it allowed a wolf to remove themselves from the day-to-day worries of where their next meal was coming from. It was a curious twist of nature that this lack of desperation seemed to aid hunting, as though distancing oneself from urgent, live-or-death need made it easier to focus, to not get disheartened by the failures. Bella went out most days in search of small game to bring back to the pack, enjoying how she made such an effective duo with her son, and how there always seemed to be a morsel left from one or the other of them at any one time. It had taken a little bit of work to adjust herself to hunting in the denser environments of the thicket and surrounding forest and fields as compared to the mountains she had lived on most of her life, but she had managed it.

The proof dangled from her jaws, three small limp bodies which represented her success of the day so far. They came after a few solid days of failure, but knowing that she was not going to starve had kept Bella's spirits high, and today she had finally cracked the secret to catching lemmings. Listening for their movements under the snow and trying to pinpoint their location was a skill in and of itself, and then you had to actually catch the things! They might have been small and only a mouthful, but she had caught 2 more in the morning which she had eaten herself, which would keep her comfortable for a little while. These were to go straight to the pack, along with the knowledge of where she had found them and how best to get more - for that little spot out in the Blackberry Fields was rife with the critters. Perhaps she would take @Flair, @Enia and @Cinaed out there and show them how to do it.

Humming contentedly to herself, lost in her own world as her feet carried her back to the thicket on autopilot, Bella passively noticed the disturbed snow as she passed it, as though someone had been playing in it. She paid it little attention, having no idea who had been having fun or where they might be now, and as such was oblivious to how closely she passed the hungry young girl hunkered down nearby.

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

In search of some shelter, Holly managed to find a densely clustered bunch of berry bushes that, with a bit of digging, was quickly converted in a makeshift. Holly curled up in the temporary den, tail over her nose as she stared out of the opening and up at the grey sky above her. The snow was slowly piling around where she lay but Holly didn’t mind. It wouldn’t take much to dig back out and she was only gonna have a nap anyway.

Yet Holly’s ears perked at the sound of muffled footfalls and her head popped out of the den, ears still pricked as she scanned the area around her. She was curious to know who else might be out and about right now. It was cold and snowing and anyone who wasn’t a loner surely wouldn’t be out in this weather?

Her green eyes landed on the back of an older woman walking away, something grasped in her mouth and whatever it was as Holly scented the air - because she was a curious young wolf - it made her stomach rumble loudly.

Guess she managed to find food alright, Holly thought somewhat jealously to herself as she stretched out of her den, still watching the woman. Who she guessed was taking the food back to her pack, judging by the smell of many others on her coat. Was the pack nearby than? She hadn’t run into any pack wolves as of yet and wondered how many there were, scattered around. Would she be able to find one for winter and/or longer than that?

Maybe she should ask the woman, her little inner voice told her. Can’t do any harm. And Holly found it to be right. What harm could she do in asking the woman about her pack?

“Excuse me miss?” She called out, hoping not to startle her as she stepped further away from her makeshift den.