Who can say what this life has dealt the miserable wretch wandering through the woods. Her body is a cloaked skeleton, only skin and bone, the muscles having long since begun to atrophy as arthritis set into her joints. Hatred of any movement, every step causing more and more pain to lance up her shoulders and down her back as she forces herself to walk. Her back legs seem to have a life of their own, hips bouncing as she moves, her steps too high to be normal. Every now and then, she stumbles, loosing her balance for a moment. Her matted pelt once shone with a vibrancy that only showed the life in her, now it is dull, scraggly, caked with black dirt and other debris.

Her eyes, earthen orbs that once showed the happy soul that lived within the husk of a wolf we see now, they stare blankly at the path before her, brows furrowed as she tries to see the obstacles in her way. Fuzzy shapes and colors show, but she can see nothing discernible through her pupil-less gaze. Light and shadows are her only allies, depth perception having been lost to age long ago. The sensation of her ears swiveling fills her empty spaces, and one can see the muscles atop her head tensing as if the ears are still in their places. Her tongue, the tip of which is dry and pale, hangs out of her mouth, even while it is closed. She keeps her pace slow, forcing one stiff leg in front of the other to make herself go forward, to force herself to go on.

It takes great courage to keep fighting, great will power to keep going, and once she has exhausted both, her hobbling and bouncing comes to a halt. She pants, her breaths shallow and rather labored as she has expended the last bit of energy her frail body kept, her sunken sides heaving with the effort of breathing. She lowers her bones into a sitting position, groaning with pain as she tries to relax what muscles she has left. Her eyelids lower to cover eyes that literally encase the world, half-closed gaze looking out into the last world she would see. The woodlands nothing more that a large expanse of giant shadows and bright highlights in the day. She sways, her body not letting her truly be still. Her heartbeat makes her small frame move back and forth, the very beating of it against her sternum a visible testament to her condition.

Suddenly, she flows to the ground. Her sides heaving as she inhales and exhales, her eyes slowly blinking and opening to reveal the dull earth within her skull. She stretches out her limbs, simply relaxing in the leaf litter and grass that grows here, waiting for either death or a friend to come and save her from her living nightmarish struggle. She hopes for a savior, but she also wishes to end the suffering. Perhaps, fate will take a kinder approach than sending her death dealer to this girl. Maybe there is a life to live still, even if it is a short one.

female :: twenty-three :: too old for love :: no soul to find :: no home