Even worse, her attempts to make it right had fallen short. With her limited knowledge and lack of experience, she had struggled to treat the other’s wound. Then, her patient had run off without having fully recovered. Neko had tried to track her runaway patient, but a heavy rain washed away the scent, and she lost the trail. Unable to find her patient, Neko had lost any chance to right the wrong.
Unable to come to terms with the fact that she had harmed another, she blamed the mountain. It didn’t matter that she had chosen to climb the mountain, or that she had tried to hunt on the treacherous slope. Not knowing what else to do, she ran. She ran far, far away- far from that mountain, never to return.
She knew she couldn’t run forever and that she would have to move on with her life, and she was still determined to honor her mother’s legacy. She made up her mind to look for a pack to join and to find a healer to teach her. She would learn how to help others instead of hurting them.
She found herself traveling around a huge lake dotted with islands. In her condition, she didn’t want to risk trying to swim from one island to the next, and she wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, so she walked around the lake. She had spent the night near the east end of the lake and was now traveling westward along the north shore.
She stopped on the shore and sat on her haunches, facing the lake. She gazed out onto the water, looking first at some nearby islands, then at the sunlight glistening in the waves. She thought about trying to catch some fish. In spite of her hunger, she didn’t really feel like eating, but she knew she needed to eat if she was going to keep up her strength.