Drooping Willows like glue

RE - A recent heat wave has left the forests drier than usual.

It was uncommon for Lillia to part even slightly from her charges, but she had wandered just a touch today. Not because she was leaving - she didn't think that she could bring herself to do so - but because occasionally Lillia needed a bit of space. It wasn't anything they'd done, of course, but simply part of who she was. A wanderer, an explorer, just as much as she was a protector and shield.

So she walked. The blistering heat seared her fur, the grass underfoot crisped and dry. Summers were hot, but this wave had been particularly so, and Lillia tried not to let it make her too miserable, but she was certainly feeling it, with the dryness in the air and on her tongue. It wasn't the worst she'd ever felt - far from it, in fact - but it wasn't the comfortable, near relaxing life she'd come to know recently.

She searched for water above all else, and found it in the shade of a series of willows, the shade a welcome respite from the brilliant sun above. She stopped by the water and leaned in to take a drink. Her left hind leg held off the ground, favoring the limb, aching from where the bison they'd taken down had clipped her a few months back. She was alone, for now, and no one was around to witness the weakness she was displaying.

Lillia rested by the water for a while, grateful for the reprieve. It was a nice little break, easing the worst of the ache in her bones and cooling herself down. This wouldn't be something she would do often - the little lady and Reverie were going to be wondering where she was, and she didn't want them to think she'd abandoned them.

So, after just a few short minutes, Lillia would turn and leave, off to find her little makeshift family once more.

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